Zoo Med BettaMatic Automatic Daily Betta Feeder, Black

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.

I read all the terrible reviews for the BettaMatic and still ... decided to give this product a try as I really needed to find an option to feed my betta fish while on vacation. I read all the directions carefully and even used a fresh new battery of my own in case the one provided with the BettaMatic was old. After testing for more than a week, I was never able to get the mechanism to turn even once - that I could see. If it turned while I was away from home, it never released a pellet. What a disappointment. I threw this product in the garbage yesterday.The majority of automatic fish feeders available do not allow you to completely control exactly how much food is dispensed. This is really important In the case of a betta fish, as their stomachs are about the size of their eye. I feed my betta fish only about 2 to 3 pellets a day.After more research, I decided to purchase the Fish Mate F14 Aquarium Fish Feeder which is available here at Amazon. I would recommend, as it enables you to control exactly how many pellets your betta receives. Also, it can be programed to feed your fish once a day for 14 days or twice a day for 7 and in specific time windows. I thoroughly tested with success and then used it during a weeks vacation and came back to a happy "living" betta fish.Finally, you must make sure to fully test the F14. The size of your pellets may or may not work with the product. I feed my betta 2 types of pellets. The smaller ones (Ocean Nutrition Betta Pellets) did not work in the Fish Mate F14 as they are too fine to be pushed around the mechanism and do not release, but the larger pellets (New Life Spectrum Betta Formula) worked quite well.I guess nothing is perfect, but I do feel I have finally found a solution that works for me and my betta. Good Luck!

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 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)