Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Novaris,
Your ?'s are ones we will have to find out.

They:-
1) are a perch and should grow quickly. Food conversion will be of immense interest. I suspect that it may be much higher than our native fish
2) should eat about anything that you put before them chook pellets, their own fry, yabbies and a selection of plant life.
3) should be tough little buggers as they have not at any time been mollycoddled.
4) are very dependent on a good oxygen supply and would need to be transported carefully.
5) should not mind being crowded, they are a school fish.
6) appear to prefer still but good quality water with aquatic plants where they lay their eggs.

If we are able to get them to breed we should only use the fry to :-
1) grow out to plate size,
2) use as feeder fish,
3) sell as fry to other APers (if you have a licence) on condition that they are only used to grow out in an AP unit.

Jim at Buninyong I think has experience with Redfin and his advice and comments on this thread would be most welcome.

I think that they have future in AP units but you may not be able to grow native fish in the same recycling water.
If you wish to grow native fish do not touch Redfin at the moment. If it turns out that they are a top AP fish the DPI will remove all stops to find out more about the EHN virus life cycle.
Those of us that wish to try them should offer the DPI access to our units so that they can set in place tests to get to the bottom of this virus Redfin are well established in Southern Australia and I think even in WA. We cannot now get rid of them so if we find an answer to the virus we can protect our native fish.
Alex

Fair idea Alex.... give them a call and see what they say.

Info I've seen suggests they don't reach sexual maturity unti 2-3 years old.... but the same info also notes that some do so around 12 months...

Suggests that in reality there hasn't been a lot of definitive research done....

Hi Alex, it's funny I was raised on a dairy farm in Katunga it's been many a year since I've been up there.

I would love to see how it would go to breed and raise redfin in AP they seem to be a perfect fish for Victoria if you could use some help I might be interested. I did read somewhere that females grow faster than males, but I have yet to find much info on r.e. aquaculture

Just watch out with chook pellets. I haven't found one that does not have copper in it. Even they don't know why they add it.

Thanks for that dufflight.

[/quote]Fair idea Alex.... give them a call and see what they say.[/quote]

Rupert I spoke to a staff member for half an hour AM today and he, Andrew Clarke is very interested in what we are doing. I intend letting Andrew guide us in how this matter is handled. The head of Andrews Dept considers Redfin top eating so maybe we have a Dept that may do something.
Your comment "Suggests that in reality there hasn't been a lot of definitive research done....:" is spot on no one really knows much about this virus other than maybe and I mean maybe Redfin are a host. Birds may also be a host!!!!!!!!

Novaris
What age did you leave the area and what did you do with yourself in the big smoke. I lived at Yarra Glen for ten years going to the City to work each day.
We have almost completed our house reno here at Heathcote and will be moving to Katunga in about four weeks.
Alex

well I will just have to use calf pellets.
I was being a bit flipant saying Chook pellets. I see no problems finding a suitable feed item for Redfin.
I was not aware that they contained copper. By the same token I am not convinced that copper is all that evil. My parents and Gran parents, cooked, washed and drank water held in copper containers delivered via copper pipes. My Mum is still going bright and breezey at 85 had a new hip put in last week. Only stopped riding horses 15yrs ago. Us young ones are not living any longer than our grand parents if you ignore the advances made by the health system.
Alex

Its more the way it kills the fish.

Thanks OBO for pointing out my missing the point. Apologies to Dufflight for my making light of it.
Thanks to you both for your input
Alex

Hi Alexmac,

great info on the dpi.

Like most of us I've heard the stories about the redfin virus and stunting of the breed. There are so many small fish [redfin] around here in the channel systems and water storages, It's rare to catch a larger one now. The numbers are still there but not the size?

The Goulburn river was much like the Murray when I was a kid you could catch a feed of large reddies on just about anything you used as bait, but then the river was clean and had water in it.

Today I have not heard of anyone catching reddies in the Goulburn around our area for 30 years, but now the water is now dirty and low all the time so most fish would struggle to survive.

I find it hard to know if the virus is to blame for reduced fish numbers or it's just poor water quality in the rivers thats doing the job.

It's intresting that the channel water looks cleaner most of the time than whats in the river. This can be due to the water being diverted into storages upstream where it's cleaner.

There is also a good amount of natives and wild trout both brown, rainbow with the odd salmon species here in the channel system.

I'm keen to have reddies in my aquaponics system to breed and grow out. The eating quality is great and as you said they will eat anything.

If we can help the solve some of the myths surrounding the species and help the dpi then it's even more of a reason for us to go with reddies.

God bless froggo.

Froggo... from what I under stand... stunting is due to overpopulation of a waterway.... and according to this article.... the Victorian strain of the species is significantly smaller by nature..

Redfin in Victoria



I'll started a Redfin Perch thread over in the Fish Species topic and post the links I have saved

This article states that Redfin are the host species for EHN virus...

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/asset ... idgee9.pdf



Would seem likely that the virus would have spread to the Goulburn area...

And there are several references along these lines...



i.e ... the virus has existed naturally in Australian waters, but remained dormant until a host species was introduced... the Redfin Perch....

It is specific to Australia and the Australian Redfin Perch...the European Perch (the original introduced species) does not suffer from EHN...

The above section from Ruperts quote would lead me to suspect that if redfin are a host they are not the only one. The virus is Australian, redfin were introduced, they maybe suitable as a host but there must be a natural Australian host before the redfin.

I still believe it may be possible to breed disease free redfin. And if keeping some in AP could advance knowledge of the disease that would be great.