Feeding ring

[Surfdog]

I was at Petsmart having my Malamute groomed and had a bit of time to wander around the store, of course I ended up in the fish section and noticed a gadget for around $3 or so. It is a suction cup mounted, hinged floating ring about 5 inches across called a feeding ring. I believe its meant for Beta's but I picked one up to try in my 75 Gallon fresh. Incredibly, it works great! Now when I go to feed my 35 or so assorted Barbs, everyone one of them is at the ring (in a corner of tank) and waiting. The second the food is deposited in the ring its a frenzy and a very small portion actually makes it out of the ring. No more flake drifting in the tank, it's pretty much totally consumed while still in the ring. I just finished a water change and gravel vac and I was shocked at how little the vac brought up. I use a vac system with a Diatom filter attachment so I don't miss much. The Diatom was almost as clean as when I started. IMO, best 3 bucks I've spent in quite a while.

[KingFisher]

What I dont like about those is that it makes it easier for the more dominant fish to hog all the food and prevent the other fish from getting their share.

[FinalJenemba]

What I dont like about those is that it makes it easier for the more dominant fish to hog all the food and prevent the other fish from getting their share.

Agreed. I don't think it would work very well for my mbuna but I could see it working really well for community fish like barbs and such.

[Stlouisfish]

I see what KF is talking about - there are often fish who "miss" the usual feeding time and need to be fed after "lights out" (bottom feeders, less assertive fish, etc) - as long as all your fish continue to appear healthy guess it was a good buy but please keep this in mind.

[spyderbite]

I used one of these in my goldfish tank. Was perfect because they would tend to take turns and let the bottom dwellers have their pellets because they'd be too distracted at the ring. ;)

Under any other circumstance I wouldn't use it.

[Surfdog]

If you can see, you know how much to put into the ring. I place enough over a few minutes so "some" gets by for the rosy's and other less aggressive. My Corries end up with plenty as well. I just don't have as much heading down and into the gravel. Clean tank = healthy tank in my book, fresh or salt...

[Tiari]

I have feeding rings on two of my heavily filtered tanks. They work great to keep food from blowing all over the tank and making a mess. The fish learn very quickly, where the ring is, and hang out at it at their regular feeding time waiting for you. One thing though, once they get used to where the ring is, if you move it, it can take several weeks for them to "learn" where it is LOL