paul b January 3, 2012 Share January 3, 2012 All fish in the sea know how to find their food and in a tank it is even easier for them. The problem is that in the sea Mother Nature supplies food all day, every day. We as humans have other lives and usually don't want to feed our fish continousely. At least I don't. Also some fish are just designed to eat a tiny bit all day because that is just the way their digestive systems were designed. Fish like pipefish and seahorses don't even have a real stomach, just a short tube that acts like a stomach and intestine. These types of fish can not store food as other fish can. Other fish with similar digestive systems are mandarins and any other fish that normally lives on tiny food such as pods. These fish can not even eat a large meal if it were offered to them which is also the reason for their tiny mouths. For this reason I am a big advocate of feeding stations. My tank is old and loaded with pods so I really don't have to do this but sometimes a certain fish needs a little help even if the tank is full of pods. I recently aquired a baby female that is very skinny. I am hoping she matures to mate with my large male. I hatch and feed live baby brine shrimp to my tank every day and most of the fish eat them, even the larger gobies but this food disappears in a few minutes. Some of it gets skimmed off or caught in powerheads and the rest migrate to the surface because baby brine shrimp are attracted to light. Most fish that would eat pods, live on the bottom so that food is lost to them. This feeding station is designed for baby brine shrimp. It is just a plactic container with a mesh over it that barely passes baby brine. It also has a tube running to the surface so I can fill it with shrimp. I fill it in the morning and fish just hang around it all day sucking out shrimp. Many shrimp also escape to be caught by the corals. About 15 years ago I designed and patented this type of feeding station for adult brine shrimp. http://www.breedersregistry.org/Articles/v4_i3_paul_b/paul_b.htm (I do not sell these) I have also used a different type of feeding station to feed moorish Idols. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni January 3, 2012 Share January 3, 2012 Paul, Very neat! Any chance you'd be willing to make another? Or possibly put together a materials list? Looks like rigid airline tubing going to a small container...what size mesh are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 3, 2012 Author Share January 3, 2012 (edited) The container is what electricial tape sometimes comes in but anything can be used even a square pill box. I cut the hole on the top with a large hole saw and the lid (with the hole in it) holds the mesh on. The tube is acrylic but airline tubing works. There is a small plastic funnel on the top. The mesh is an old net. I tested a few to get a size that the shrimp can get through but small enough so they don't all come through at once. Thats it. I actually built it, installed it and took the pictures while I am on hold for Medicaid for my Mother N Law. I am on hold now about two hours listening to how important my call is. I love to call Gov. agencies. Edited January 3, 2012 by paul b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cris January 3, 2012 Share January 3, 2012 Paul, what a cool idea. Please let me know if you decide to make and sell these. Cris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefoholic January 3, 2012 Share January 3, 2012 Awesome idea! I am going to try to build a smaller one maybe for my tank. I wanted to ask for your opinion on one thing. Do you think it is possible to use this setup as a hatchery for brine shrimp as well? I am wondering if I could put the eggs in this contraption and let them hatch and feed the fish? Your experienced input would be very valuable on this matter. Thanks and thanks very much for sharing your wonderful idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve175 January 4, 2012 Share January 4, 2012 I'd like to buy 2 if you decide to make a batch. Very cool idea. I always enjoy your threads here [and on RC and on R2R]. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 4, 2012 Author Share January 4, 2012 Do you think it is possible to use this setup as a hatchery for brine shrimp as well? I am wondering if I could put the eggs in this contraption and let them hatch and feed the fish? I think you would get a lot of egg shells in the water if you did this. It is not designed for hatching. This is my hatchery that seperates the eggs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 7, 2012 Author Share January 7, 2012 I built the thing mainly for this young skinny female mandarin. Up unitl now she has been afraid to go on top of it and would just suck up the shrimp around the edges but now she hangs out on top of it and sucks out dozens of shrimp. I need her to grow a little so she can mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua January 7, 2012 Share January 7, 2012 I would love one, if you make a kit or build a batch. I'm in for one feeder and one breeder. Gotta love ingenuity some people have it, some people don't! Great design! Even more props for getting your own patent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak January 7, 2012 Share January 7, 2012 Fantastic, I love this, would love to see it hidden under a small pile of rocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 7, 2012 Author Share January 7, 2012 Even more props for getting your own patent! Joshua, thanks. I already have an aquarium related patent and one patent pending. This one already cost me about $23,000.00 for the patent and we have another $20,00.00 or so into it so I will not be doing more patents for a while. If I get time I will have a bunch of them built but I don't see that happening for a while. The hatchery I also just built out of spare materials. I also built and sold many of these things for feeding. These things are just built for my tank when I see a need and I pass it along. All of these things are easy to build but expensive to make and sell commercially. Those feeder things pictured below cost me about $5.00 or $6.00 to build. But I have to drive to the Bronx for the acrylic tubes and shipping is about $5.00. So to sell them and just break even I would have to sell them for about $11.00. To make a little profit they would sell for about $17.00 which is more than I would pay for one. The hatcheries are a lot of work but I guess I could build them in bulk. Again, they would have to sell for much more than I would pay for them. It is just not worth it unless you had them built by the hundreds for very cheap. I only deal with the United States and don't buy or have anything made in other countries so to have them built here by the hundreds would be very costly. I am not here looking to make money. I am retired and not yet starving, soon maybe, but not yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbh January 8, 2012 Share January 8, 2012 Paul, do you still sell the glass feeders? Will you be down anytime soon? I wish my son could get one from you! He is in NYC at a convention! LMK... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 8, 2012 Author Share January 8, 2012 I don't build them as I have 3 for myself and they last for many years. All of those in the picture I gave away or sold. I have to get the bulbs by the case and I don't need that many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbh January 8, 2012 Share January 8, 2012 (edited) Hmm...any suggestions for where to get parts? I think it maybe useful to feed my scooter blenny(mandarin). And while I am thinking about it what kind of screening is on the feeder? How does the hatching box work? Why the middle tube? Why the outside tube? Can the hatching box and feeder be connected? Edited January 8, 2012 by hbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b January 16, 2012 Author Share January 16, 2012 I took a short video of the thing working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 11, 2012 Author Share February 11, 2012 It's been a little over a month since I installed this thing and I love it. My tank has 3 bluestrip pipefish, and two mandarins along with some small clown gobies and shrimp. They all hang around this thing for a few hours that it has shrimp in it. In this tank I really don't have to supliment their diet because there are plenty of pods but I like everything to spawn and the only way fish will spawn is by eating more food then they normally can and food with a high oil content such as new born brine shrimp are even better than pods. Two of the pipefish are to young to spawn but I feel that in a couple of weeks they will be ready. Also my female mandarin is to young so this will fatten her up. My copperband is a regular visitor here although he gets live worms every day. It is just another thing for me to get facinated about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt LeBaron February 13, 2012 Share February 13, 2012 Hmm...any suggestions for where to get parts? I think it maybe useful to feed my scooter blenny(mandarin). And while I am thinking about it what kind of screening is on the feeder? How does the hatching box work? Why the middle tube? Why the outside tube? Can the hatching box and feeder be connected? Was wondering the same thing as hbh. How does that work? I would be very interested in building my own if I could understand it. Also in your feeder, do the BBS naturally go to the bottom in that? I would think they would stay in the tube near the lights at the top of your tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 13, 2012 Author Share February 13, 2012 http://www.labdepotinc.com/c-344-pipet-filter.php Here is the site I get the rubber bulbs out, go to "Large rubber bulbs and I think I use the fifty one down. Then you need to get the acrylic tube and bend it. The outside tube is an earlier model and I let it down to drain out the shrimp. The baby brine go into the mesh compartment and swim to the mesh where the light is. Then the fish suck them through. The middle tube is not needed and does not go al the way through. It just shines more light into the black compartment to attract the shrimp. You hatch them in the dark side, then slide closed the door and I let down the tube (or in the newer model), open a valve and the shrimp come out, the sjells stay in the dark side like Darth Vader. You can connect the hatching box to the feeder but then you will have nothing to do. The screen size is the same size as a baby brine shrimp. I cut up a net. I don't know the exact size but it should restrict the shrimp or they will just all immediately swim out. This stuff is simple, improvise, it doesn't have to look exactly like mine. I made many of them out of whatever I can find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbh February 17, 2012 Share February 17, 2012 Thank you! But I must say "but then you will have nothing to do" is extremely appealing! :-D The mesh is from a cut up fish net? Where do you get the baby brine shrimp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 17, 2012 Author Share February 17, 2012 Where do you get the baby brine shrimp? You buy the eggs in any pet store and hatch them See the tiny dots in here? Thats shrimp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b March 14, 2012 Author Share March 14, 2012 I am happy to say that in the 5 or 6 weeks since I installed this baby brine shrimp feeding station my skinny little female mandarin fattened up nicely and is now bordering on plump. The first picture is when I got her, you can see her sides pinched in, especially under her dorsal fin and she resembled Twiggy. The second picture is today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy357 March 14, 2012 Share March 14, 2012 I would deff buy one of those from you if you decide to make anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipg March 14, 2012 Share March 14, 2012 I would deff buy one of those from you if you decide to make anymore. +1 to that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reloadeddevil March 14, 2012 Share March 14, 2012 +1. Put me down for two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b March 15, 2012 Author Share March 15, 2012 (edited) Unfortunately I don't have tiome to build these things as I get requests to build stuff almost every day. It just takes five minutes and you can put the mesh over a flat container with a rubber band. I cut a net for the mesh, I don't know where you could buy mesh like that except from a cheap net. Edited March 15, 2012 by paul b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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