Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don, there's something going on in the pond since we dropped the PH. I've noticed the odd fish hanging about in the shallow water by the side. Today I stood and watched. The fish was standing on end plucking at the remains of moss that only covers the painted surface right near the top.

I went out again tonight after to pump shut off at 8pm. The under-bridge light was on but there are no insects at the moment. The fish looked to be looking for surface food so I threw a few 3mm floating pellets in. They were immediately gobbled up so we stood there for quite a while tossing just a few pellets at a time.

It was really good to see them eventually taking to the bought food. They must be hungry due to the change in the water so tomorrow the auto-fish-feeder is going back on.

Tomorrow I'll check out if we can have BSF here. It sounds like the best option if they continue to breed.

Sounds good,I will await the next development. If they breed and you have too many I would be interested in getting some off you.

If they breed at the rate they reckon, they lay many thousands of eggs at a time, then as long as we get them out safely early there should be plenty to share

Reproduction

Spawning takes place from November (following the onset of the Monsoon) into summer. Prior to spawning this fish will often migrate upstream at dusk or at night. Has often been observed attempting to swim up spillways of overflowing dams during this period.

Many thousands of tiny eggs around 0.75mm are scattered over the bottom, usually at night and often in shallow areas with a soft bottom. Incubation takes about 2 days and the larvae are actively feeding within another 2 days. Larval development is complete within 24 days of spawning.

One of the very few teraponids that will breed in dams where it will move to shallow areas to spawn. Has some potential as an aquaculture subject. Matures at a small size, around 78mm for females and 58mm for males.

This is an extract from my mate Google

I've made a great little, well not so little, 75mm air-pump to remove the leaf litter from the bottom of the pond. It works well too but after reading this article I've decided that it could be a risky move. November is the start of the spawning season and I really don't want to suck all the little guys out before they get a chance to show up

The last few days we've noticed the pond water clearing up. It seems to have happened suddenly so Mrs M ran a water test. All seems to be ok apart from the Phosphates. That lever is way too high and yet it was all good a week or two back when the PH was too high.

Perhaps it has something to do with the large shady Tipuana Tipu tree over the pond that has been molting and shedding so many flowers that we've been filling two wheely bins.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZeFXZctR5N8[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/ZeFXZctR5N8


I decided it was time to try to clean up the bottom. I made up a bag from mosquito mesh to catch the leaves that I extracted with the air-pump. It lifted out a lot of the zeolite that shouldn't have been there too. It even sucked up pebbles more than 50mm in size. Unfortunately we couldn't collect the small particles that just sent the water murky. The radial flow filter is quite useless as well because the amount of flow doesn't allow the solids to settle and most just pump back into the pond.

I find the bell syphon unreliable. I'm going to try swapping to a flood and drain by timer.

Hi moneybox

how did you find swapping from the bell siphon to timer flood and drain ??