Neptun
If you are a breeder of aquarium fish, you may need a food cutter. After all, you are always faced with the problem of feeding small fish. After the fry grow up they are no longer satisfied with crustaceans. They should be given larger food. But such food as trubichnik or moth is still too big for them. And sometimes it is necessary to crush the leaves of plants to give growing fish plant food. Do it with a knife or scissors is not quite convenient. Usually, the tube fish are shredded with a safety razor blade on a small glass or a piece of Plexiglas. To speed up and simplify this work will help a simple feed shredder, which can be made with your own hands.
This shredder of food for aquarium fish was described at one time in the supplement “For Skillful Hands” to the magazine “Young Technician” on page 11 of 11 issue for 1974, in the note “Cutter for trubuchnik” chairman of the section of aquarists at VOOP RSFSR V. Datskevich.
Feed cutter Materials
To make such a cutter, you will need a dural, aluminum or brass plate with a thickness of 1.5-2 millimeters, width equal to the length of the blade or slightly wider than it. In this plate should be drilled holes in which to insert the bolts for attaching the blades. The plate should then be bent as shown in the illustration. The blades are inserted into this holder and put on the bolts. Washers are put on the bolts between the blades. This whole package is then clamped together with nuts. The sliced feed fragments will be equal to the thickness of the washers inserted between the blades. The size of the fragments of food cut with this cutter can be varied to some extent by changing the thickness of the washers and the number of washers between the blades.
In order to bend the plate without special problems, and the line of the bend was even should be on the inside of the bend scratch the plate under the ruler with a special cutter, which can be made from a scrap of an old hacksaw blade.
Lightweight structures
It is sometimes quite difficult to fold dural in half, even by scratching it on the inside of the bend. Then you can make two identical parts and bolt them together at the top by drilling holes for them.
If you know for sure that you cannot cope with bending a dural plate, you can try to do without this procedure at all. To do this, try to find a U-shaped profile of suitable dimensions and, by drilling holes in its side plates, insert a package of blades with spacers into it.
If you are not lucky enough to find a similar profile you can simplify the design as much as possible.
For the simplest possible version of such a cutter without losing its functionality, you should prepare two plates of suitable dimensions and drill two holes in them, in which the bolts for attaching the blades will be inserted.
If you are good with tools and you enjoy working with metals, you can make rectangular plates with bolt holes out of the same dural as spacers between the blades instead of purchased washers. Such spacers will better fix the blades and will not allow them to bend. This will make the work safer and more comfortable.
Using the torch
You should cut without much pressure, then the blades will not quickly dull, and when it does happen they can be turned with sharp edges outward and continue to use the cutter.
The feed should be chopped with this cutter on a small glass. After use, it should be rinsed well under running water and dried. This will prevent rusting.
Let me remind you that you can not give fish just bought trubozhnik to fish, it should be properly prepared. How to do this see in the article “Pipefish”.
After you have cut the tube fish with the shredder described here, it should not be immediately thrown into the aquarium either. First, it should be washed in running water in a thick cloth net.
Here is such a simple device will help you diversify the menu of growing fry and small fish.
