Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You mean ... about 150-350mm long??...

nar dude they are small as, 120 of them have only been in there for about 2 or 3 weeks, the other 50 for a few months(well i think thier still in there)any advice would be good

Most suppliers wont supply fingerlings less than 50mm of size... you could have trouble getting them through winter if your tank temp drops off too quickly before you can get some feed and weight on them...

What are your tank temps at the moment?

Can you enclose the tank and/or growbeds with plastic film... in combination with the tine roof you might be able to hold the temperature up enough to keep them feeding, even if only lightly, through winter... you can always roll up the film in summer and/or replace it with shade cloth...

Silvers wont feed or grow much below about 14 degrees...

at the moment the tank temp is between 10 and 13oc and theres no nitrite and about 0.50 ammonia but the ph is high i think at 8. well it looks like i'm in trouble, there is shade cloth up there now, is there any other way to heat the fish tank?

IMO I would say plastic creating a hot house is the only way. I have just covered my tunnel house in plastic and the temps are up 4 deg so far. I have SP in the sump which haven't grown since the water temp has dropped. Started with 150, and only put 80 from the FT into the sump to make way for trout. How many are left now, I don't know. I too bought these at about 25 mm long, never again. Keep an eye on my thread, Ricks 3000l and 6 bed, to see how my water temp goes over the next few days, as the plastic only went on last weekend.

+1, Rick...

I too got the really small SP, still have most of my 120, I have mine in the outside 1 bed system, and are still feeding (water temp approx 10deg). It was a tough start to the season this summer though, and it took me months to find someone with fish, so I grabbed what I could get.

My water in the big system was up 1deg (to 11deg) this morning and 14deg tonight, but the temp today was good (approx 26 inside the greenhouse).

thanks for your advice Rick, where would the best place be to get plactic from? and would it have to be air tight?

That's actually very surprising NF.... how much are you feeding and how often?

http://www.mtmgreenhouses.com.au/index.html

No need to be airtight but I doubt if you would want any draughts. The above web site would be a good start. Newfarmer has built his own tunnel house, I did the same but to fit a 2nd hand plastic that I bought for $50. If the structure that you have is flat on the top, you may only be able to use plastic on the sides.

They're still quite small (8-10cm), and feeding every 2nd day or so, approx 1-1.5 table spoons.
If I forget to give them a feed for a few days, they are quite agressive at the food.
As they are still small, I have been grinding up the trout pellets for them in a spice grinder.
If the water temps drop much further and they stop eating, I might consider moving them to the sump in the greenhouse.

thank you for your help rick

Will my sivler perch eventually die if i can't keep my water temp high enough? Should i make another system to move them to and get some trout?