Zoo Med BettaMatic Automatic Daily Betta Feeder, Black

I was away for 10 days for an international trip and the BettaMatic must have worked -- my fish was healthy when I returned yesterday. I have 5 gal Fluval tank and did not see any excess pellets in or around the tank. The water appeared clear. I did not use the battery that came with it after reading reviews, and tested the feeder for just a day before I left. Position the feeder so that the spout has enough room from the edge of the tank because I did notice that pellets may not drop into the tank if the spout was sitting too close to the corner... at least that was what I noticed when testing the feeder using a mug cup...the pellets were all over the place but it is because the cup was not wide enough to receive the falling pellets. Since I didn't have much time to try I just used the pellets that came with the feeder, not the usual food I use (Aqueon Betta Food). They were a tad bigger but it wasn't an issue I guess. I feed my betta once a day, about 6 pellets so this feeder was the best for me (I did not get the best selling automatic feeder on Amazon because I was afraid it would dispense too many pellets at once)

Ok so the reason I got this was because it was for pellet food and for betas, I gave it a trial run and it seemed ok for a short 3 day trip I had taken earlier this year so I felt confident with it. However later when I went on a 9 day vacation leaving behind a very happy healthy beta I came back to a very sick beta that had very obviously been overfed and despite my efforts to help him he died a week later. Very sad and mad, do not get this piece of junk it is very unreliable. It cost me my pet, I threw it out.

I've waited to make this review in order to make sure it actually did its job which was to keep my fish alive. And, success! For specifics: because of the varying reviews, I ordered this well before my vacation because I wanted to test that it actually dispersed the food on a daily basis and to see how many pellets would be dispersed. What I found is that it dropped food about 90% of the time and dropped around 3-4 pellets at a time. This was using the included food packets. I have my own pellets which are slightly smaller and so I tested that next. Because of the smaller size, it dropped many more pellets, around 5-6. This is too much food for a Betta. That was one of my concerns so I moved back to the larger pellets. We were going to be gone for 2 weeks and the little ball is big enough to hold well above that amount. With some trepidation, we left on vacation. And I was thrilled to return to find a happily swimming little fish. I have continued to use the automatic feeder because it drops at the same time every day and keeps things consistent. However, I'm not a huge fan of the provided food. It tends to cause constipation after several days (identified by an enlarged belly which can throw off the fish's balance). So in order to avoid this, I remove the feeder for 1-2 days about once every week or so. I actually read from some other Betta parents that this is good to do anyway. One other small complaint is the plastic food ball is pretty fragile. Be extremely careful with the little latches on the sides of the ball - they are very thin plastic. Also, the place where the ball attaches to the motor already has a fine crack in it and I've only used it for a couple months. It does not impact functionality but is a point of annoyance. If you are wondering how it works, I would describe it as similar to a travel alarm clock. It's battery operated on a 24-hour cycle. The feeding time depends on when and in what portion you attach the ball. It's not hard to figure out how to adjust the time once you've watched it work. Overall, this thing can't be beat for the price. It did its job and is still working fine.

I'm going out of town for 10 days, and I was so worried about my betta friend. I clamped the feeder the edge of the filter box because I have a lip on my tank and it wouldn't sit on it. I could have used the rails to lay it across, but the tank is half round and it felt a bit unstable. On a full round or square tank the rails would probably be just fine. I tested it a couple of times before I put it on the tank to see how much food it gives. It's not particularly consistent, but droppped between one and four pellets per turn when I just turned it with my hand. The trick is make sure the scoop in the cone is in the right orientation for the direction it turns. It's not ideal, but I expect it will keep my fish alive at least. I'm testing it on the tank for a few days to see how it works before I leave to be sure. If I find a problem when I get back from my trip, I'll update this review. But for now it seems to be great.

Let's break down exactly what this thing is. It's a small clock motor, similar to what you'd find in any cheap wall clock. I was confused at first because it even has the time-setting dial on the back and I thought it had to be adjusted somehow, but it doesn't. It runs on one AA battery which is included. The small camshaft on the front is fitted with the plastic ball, once you've filled it with food and reassembled it. The ball is slightly tricky - it's made of a more rigid plastic than I expected and there are multiple warnings in the instructions not to break the three clips that hold it together. The problem is, it feels brittle and all too easy to break. Once you've got it open, filling it is fiddly. I jostled one half and ended up with food all over my desk. The best way to fill it is to take the half with the mounting hole in it and set it on something soft so it won't roll around, fill with food, then set the funnel into it using the guide pip to line it up. Again, you have to be careful snapping it back together that you don't bump it and spill food everywhere, or misalign it and break one or more of the clips. Mounting was not as simple as portrayed, either. If you have a tank that has a plastic lip at the top, you won't be able to mount this directly to it. The clearance for the mount is only 1/4" or so, so unless you're using a container without a lip you'll need to use the rail kit which makes it a lot bulkier. The rail kit slides into a piece that's closed in the clamp easily enough and sits atop the opening of the tank. When mounted on the rails, the way the food turns it can bounce off of the rails so don't put it too close to the edge of the tank on the right side or the food could bounce out instead of going in the water. The clock motor turns the ball, which scoops the food and then distributes it. I found it really funny that the instructions remind you over and over again to only use food that floats, but when I put a few pellets of the enclosed sample food into the tank to see if my bettas would like it, it immediately sank. I have two other brands of pellet food and neither sinks as badly as the stuff included with the Bettamatic. The pellets were also quite large and one of my females didn't seem to like it as it was too big for her mouth. I'd recommend the Hikari Betta Bio-Gold Baby Pellets for small-mouthed fish, they love those and I'd think more would get into the tank. With the enclosed food only a few pellets get scooped up. So overall not a bad product, but with some quality control along with improvement in design and materials this could be a great product. I'd like to see the clamp made more versatile so it can be mounted on tanks with a plastic lip, and the ball made easier to open, close, and fill. It's a lot better than those feeder pellets for weekend maintenance.

I really wanted to like this product - it's small, inexpensive and simple to operate. I ordered it in advance of a scheduled 8 day vacation so I could do a test run prior to using it for my three African Dwarf Frogs which live in a 4 gallon tank. The frog pellets are about the same size as betta pellets, so I thought this feeder would work. However, as another reviewer noted, the scoop seemed too small and did not pick up any pellets. I was able to remedy that problem by enlarging the opening in the scoop. The feeder worked fine after that for 2 days, when I noticed the rotation of the plastic capsule slowing down considerably and extending the time for release of the pellets. I replaced the battery with a new one, and the feeder worked well for 3 days, when it began to slow down again. I again replaced the battery, only to have the same thing happen again after 3 days. This time the capsule continued to slow down until the battery was dead by day 5. Because my frogs can live for a couple of days without food, I was still able to use the feeder when I went away. I dropped a cube of frozen bloodworms in the tank and replaced the battery right before I walked out the door to provide as much longevity as possible. I would not recommend this product for anyone who will be away from their aquatic pets for more than a few days, or if their pets need to eat every day for survival. I believe this product could be much improved by Zoo Med by enlarging the scoop and adding an additional battery to improve the longevity of the feeder.

Works as advised. We went away for a whole month. We have a betta in a 10 gallon tank (don't even wonder why.....its my daughter's first pet, and I felt so bad for the betta coz it has to be all alone all the time....so I bought this $2 fish a $100 tank with a very good filter. LOL! Anyway, we went on vacation for a month...and this feeder did its job. Came home to a happy, healthy betta. We did have the neighbour come over to top up water in the tank due to evaporation...but that was all he did. :) Definitely would recommend it. Only thing is that it feeds only once a day so we had to adjust our feeding schedule a week prior so that instead of getting 2 feeds a day, betta only got one.

Worked exactly as advertised. It was set up to feed out Betta for a month. Very easy to set up. Adjustable to various tank lengths. Clean up is easy. The automatic times ensured our Betta was appropriately fed.

È pronto all’uso basta attaccare la pila e riempire di cibo per Betta e fa il suo. Io ho dovuto un pochino allargare con la lametta e facendo grande attenzione il buchino da cui deve passare il cibo per cadere nella vasca. Praticamente è un cono all’interno di una sfera e nella parte più piccola del cono c’è un piccolo buco da cui dovrebbe passare il cibo in grani già piccolini. È una cokatira di plastica abbastanza di scarsa qualità Però il problema si risolve facilissimamente con una lama ben affilata e sottile e un po’ di attenzione. Lo ingrandisce un attimino e non hai più problemi.

funciona perfecto y despues varios meses sigue funcionando con la misma pila AA

Parfait avec les granulés Atison Betta. Les rouges sont plus petits que les bleus. Cet appareil marche très bien. La boule tourne en 24h et libère la nourriture induite dans le cornet. Je dirais 8 granulés si vous avez pris du Atison rouge et 6 si vous avez pris du bleu.

Purchased for short trips away from home to ensure my betta fish doesn't go hungry. A little fiddly to fill and close the dispensing ball and I have had to try out various betta pellet sizes to see which work best. A sample packet of Zoo Med Micro floating betta pellets arrived with the feeder (plus a sachet of water conditioner... nice!) The pellets provided seem a little too big for the scoop part of the dispenser, but there is a small plastic tag that can be snapped off to allow the feeder to scoop up the bigger pellets more easily. Smaller pellets (such as Betta Bio-Gold) seem to be scooped up more readily, but I think using these may result in over feeding over long periods. Please note, I don't think this feeder is suitable for flake food. The expanding "bowl adapter" (included) is an excellent idea. Will fit right across smaller bowls, but for my Marina 360, I fix it on to the central light bar. With a bit of fiddling, you can ensure that that the pellets dispense into the water through the open part of the aquarium lid.

This is a very simple device that works. Basically, it's an old-fashioned alarm clock, except that instead of moving the hands of a clock, the motor rotates the feeding ball/cone and food is dispensed every 24 hours. I installed it 2 weeks before going on vacation to ensure that it works and to get my fish used to it. I was away for 12 days, and came home to a happy, healthy fish.