Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

just got 50 nile tilapia delivered last night..they're in the single tote system (it still needs a few more inches of gravel)
had to clean out a couple of spots in the growbed... another aphid and fungus gnat outbreak, so i ordered some ladybugs and nematodes..
gotta replant those bare spots, but things are going well.. i should be able to get some pics this week or by the weekend anyways
i also found a fish farm that sells yellow perch a few miles from my house, a bit more expensive than i've been paying, but i won't have to drive 3 or 4 hours to find more fish.. he's at about 30,000 fish right now, and figures he'll have to do 100,000 fish/year to be profitable.. anyways, i found their website this am, and they have some pics
http://www.willoughbyperch.com/photos-f ... -farm.html

thanks for sharring all those links for fish suppliers Kieth! Im about ready to stock my new greenhouse

if you're looking for tilapia, let me know..

been busy with work.. i took some pic's last weekend thinking i could post them, but never had a chance.. took some more today, and i have some time, so i thought i'd share
i've mentioned scuds a few times (ha) and that i think they can not only make an excellent feed for small fish, but by breaking down solids in filtration material, and in growbeds..
last weekend i had to trim some plants back,, put a bunch of the cowpea leaves into the scud tanks.. later that day they looked like this.. kinda hard to tell, but just the veins left in the leaf

a leaf after a couple hours

another one later that day

they make pretty quick work of any vegetation i put in (except water lettuce,, i'm a bit over run with it at the moment)

makes it easy to harvest some for the yp or tilapia - sorry the pic is fuzzy, i don't have very steady hands.. lol

since they covered these leaves so quickley and it made it easy to harvest, i put a zuchini leaf in each tank;

i didn't take any pictures when i harvested the next day, but holy crap! i figured if i just told you, you might think i'm exaggerating, so today at about 12:30 i decided to document from start to finish.. here are the leaves i'm using, 1 in each tank;




i'm going to harvest some tonight (maybe tomorrow am) and will take pic's...

i had to go to a class for work for a week, and when i got back, the growbeds had gone a little nuts..had a bad outbreak of aphids and fungus gnats..(i orderered ladybugs and namatodes and they're doing their job!)
here's some pic's after i trimmed quite a bit back, but before i finished;

here are the 50 nile tilapia from last week, they were all under 1", and pretty hard to get a good shot of.....(also, take note of the duckweed and water lettuce in the ft..)


still have to plant the growbed!

i figure there are about 150 fish in the pool..there are 10 blue tilapia in there with the yellow perch and maybe 10 bluegill or so..


there are a couple of skinny yp that are around 3", most are pretty fat, i feed them them scuds from the tanks, and all the smaller ones come up when i go by the pool

i took quite a few pic's of the baby marmokrebs last week.. they love bloodworms, peas, carrots and sinking pellets - i might sell a bunch (or trade) with a big fish store near cleveland if they can tell me exactly what the species is that they're selling as "red lobster" crayfish..
these marmks like all "levels" of the tank

my baby rosy reds are doing good.. there were probably over 100 in the pool before the big yp and bg went in.. needless to say, they were gone within a few days..
when i cleaned out my glass tanks, i had the pump sitting on a rock ledge, the rock was covered (underneath) with eggs, i put them in the tank that i had 1 male (i took him out) who's clutch or whatever had just hatched.. and at least some of the ones i saved made it..this is from last week;

here are a couple more random shots from last week
see the little krebs?

i'm moving tanks around to put them in a 55 gal.. maybe i'll get an idea of how many i have
i harvest duckweed and scuds from these tanks with the juice bottle to the right of the tanks

i haven't been using the green water very much since the rosy reds are eating ground up flake food now - one gw tank died and i' should restart it anyways..

today's pic's; rosy red minnows

the krebs are growing fast, still on all levels of the tank and now walking on glass walls!

the tilapia are still small but i can tell they're growing -this tank is the only one that is heated and it's at 76f.. they are pretty agressive towards duckweed, blood worms, scuds, flakes..
still kinda hard to get a shot of them (oops.. wrong button!)

threw in some flakes and they attack, but still hard to get a good pic;

when the fish went in there was only a little open surface area above each airstone..
i regularly feed this tank duckweed overflow and scuds..(they leave the water lettuce alone)

growbeds today, had a couple harvest of lettuce, including one from last night
chives, onions and leeks all doing great, ladybugs came to late for the dill and fennel, i'll replant the bare spots soon;

ladybugs saved the beats

and the romanesco brocholi;