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NFC: GREAT feeder for darters
Hey y'all I found a great way to make sure that darters in a community tank
get their fill.
It's called the Urchin Searchin Seahorse Feeder. I got it a few years ago
when I used to do seahorses, but never did get around to trying it.
I noticed I was putting a lot of food in my native community tank, and the
darters were stuck with whatever made it to the bottom. Also they didn't
get to pick at their food over the course of the day. Rather, they had to
eat 2 times per day like all the other fish.
Well I pulled out the Urchin Searchin tonight. I thawed out some brine
shrimp and poured it through the tube. It's intended for live brine and
would definitely work even better for that.
Within seconds, five of my six darters scooted over and were sucking brine
shrimp through the feeder. This is great! The other fishes (MRBD, crescent
shiners, green sunfish) lost interest pretty quickly. But the darters eat
their fill, swim away, and then come back for more a little later.
The device itself is pretty simple, yet ingenious. It is cylinder shaped.
The wall of the cylinder is made of a fine mesh, just big enough for brine
shrimp to slip through if actively sucked out by a fish. One end cap is
solid plastic, like a cap from a roll of 35mm film. The other end is also a
cap but with a hole in the center. Attached to that hole, down inside the
cylinder, is the hard plastic part of an eyedropper. This is the orafice
that you drop the food through to get it to the feeder (and the reason you
must thaw the frozen food before putting it in the feeder.
The whole apparatus is tied to a small fishing bobber. My 55 gallon tank is
about the perfect height for this feeder as I can reach the bobber right on
the surface of the water to pull the feeder out.
The web page for the device kinda, well, it sucks. But don't let that fool
you. This tool is perfect for darter lovers. I imagine it might also be
good for pigmy sunfish and some other shy browsers as well. They cost about
$10 plus $1.50 shipping. Once we're all moved to the new house and I get to
set up my "fish barn" outside (the shed is already there... just add tanks)
I plan on getting a few more as I'd like to try breeding the Roanoke Darters
and think this is just the thing to keep them plump and happy.
Chris Hedemark - Hillsborough, NC
http://yonderway.com