Fish Mate 14-feed Automatic Aquarium Fish Feeder (F14) - Quartz Timer Controlled for Precise Reliable Feeding with Ease, Serves Up to 14 Meals

This fish feeder works perfectly for my tank and my fish. I use a combination of dried, flake and tablet food, and this feeder does its job very well. I tend to use it for long weekends away, but last month we went away for 10 days during warm weather and it didn't clog or malfunction in any way. I don't think the fish even noticed we'd gone!The mechanism is very simple, based on a slowly rotating clock. You set the clock to the current time then put the pegs next to the appropriate hour, and as the chosen time comes around the pegs make contact with tabs on the outer food wheel and rotate it. The open bottom of the compartment gradually overlaps the hole in the base, and the food drops through. The food wheel lifts right out for easy cleaning, but I haven't had to clean mine at all. You should turn the mechanism on before loading the food, because the power switch is next to the battery under a protective cover on the underside of the unit.A few points:- If you don't have a tank with an open flat top, you can put it inside the hood, but you will probably need to attach an airline to stop the flake food from clumping - it says this in the instructions, which are very clear.- Don't use directly over the site of an airstone or filter - it will moisten the food and lead to clumping. Leaving the lid of the feeder open may also help with condensation.- As with any 'automated' item, test it for a week before you go - to save stressing out or starving your pets.- If you set it to feed at 6pm, the food won't necessarily drop in at 6pm. It's a slow gradual rotation, so if you put a large tablet in the compartment and the holes start to line up at 6pm, the tablet will not drop in until the hole is big enough - could be an hour later!Dimensions:The flat edge at the back is about 12cm, from front to back 14cm, and it's about 4.5cm high. Each food compartment has internal dimensions of 1.7cm long and approx. 1.6cm wide (1.3cm inner edge, 2cm outer edge), and is about 1.7cm high.

I love this thing so much! It has made going on holiday so much easier. We have used this for long and short holidays and as long as we had a fresh battery we never had a single issue. It has reliably fed our fish and worked as we hoped.I give it 4 stars though, because you do need to have a hole in the hood of your tank to feed with this machine. I also found, that the best way to avoid condensation, effecting the food, was to set the machine on its own box, on the hood of our tank above the hole. In doing that we found the food was dry and had no issues. But if you forget to do this, or put it straight on the hood, the food will get damp and probably clump and not move. If it had something to hold it, it would be nice, but as the box has worked for us, I would still highly recommend this feeder.

A few months after getting some tropical fish I decided to take a 3-week holiday to Australia however could not bring myself to ask friends to feed the fish twice a day whilst I was away. I must of spend hours looking from the right automatic fish feeder until I found this one. The biggest problems I had with most fish feeders was in the consistency in the amount of food dispensed. I am glad to say this is not a problem with the fish mate 14 as it has 14 individual compartments which can each be filled with the desired amount of food.It uses a simple yet effective rotating clock mechanism to time when the feeds are delivered, it comes with four pegs which you can place in the 3-hour gap points (so 3am, 6 am and 9am etc.) I chose to only use two pegs at 9am and 9pm. The mechanism is powered 1 x AA battery and workers smoothly and slightly. As it approaches the desired time it slowly pushes the next compartment over the hole which drops into the tank.As I have a closed fish tank I found that using flake food can sometimes clog due to the condensation however, this was easily resolved by using petals and placing the feeder on top of the box it came in above the tank feeding door. I’m sure this won’t be a problem for those who have open top fish tanks but if not it’s an easy fix.Overall I have been very impressed with this product and use it every time I need to go away for a few days. I highly recommend this product from anybody who has a need for an automatic fish feeder

Second replacement one sent to me as the first one didn`t work, thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt. Still doesn`t work. I can hear ticking inside but the mechanism that moves the feeding tray does not move at all! and it sounds like there is something loose inside it. Shoddy quality. I will not be purchasing a 3rd as this is just wasting my time and I needed it before I Go away on holiday, which is getting very close now. Very annoyed.