Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks again Jessy, I'm working my way through Veggie Boy's Barra thread.

My barra are averaging 7cm and so far, no signs of cannibalism. They will be going into the main AP tank when the weather warms up. Trout out, Barra in. So hopefully they will get a bit bigger in the aquarium in the mean time. Would like to keep a few to grow to bigger size but will need to set up a special tank and have a heating source for winter. Got all summer to work that on out.

So far all of the fish (barra, trout, goldies, silver perch & koi) have done really well. The only fatalities I've had have been from the marron who I have now moved in with the trout as I figure they are big enough to handle it.

The BLOODY BEES!!! Driving me bonkers. I went outside to hang out washing and was attacked earlier today. Stung me on the head which is extremely unpleasant. We've had around a hive a day swarm here. We've been trapping them and then bagging the dead bees. We've got half a freezer full and that's just the ones we've kept. Anyone want a bag of bees for their fish? Maybe I could mince them up and make pellets...???

Keenas by name
keenas by nature it would seem.
I've got afew in a 6' aquarium inside the house , the barra settle in great and are more social than any of the other fish , probably more social than any of the animals on the place other than the dog.They'll follow you up and down the length of the tank , and come up for a pat at feeding time .
Your own experience is just that, learn , read all you can , from where ever , but most of all enjoy and just do it.
Cheers

I like that, but maybe - Just do it and then enjoy

How old/big are your pet barra?
Did you grow them from fingerlings?
How long does it take for them to settle in and become 'pets'?

We picked this lot up on the 12th of this month ( Freo Tafe) ,they are probably 5cm long. They are alot bigger than last years , they were as big as my thumb nail .
So yeah not long but they are in the thick of it.Lights on , kids sayin g'day , people feeding 'em every time they go by.
Cheers

Sounds like ours may have come from the same pond as yours.

That is great news, thanks

Marron are never big enough to co-habitate with trout, I lost quite a few 1kg plus marron to a group of 200g trout, first the get the eyes, then the legs are easy pickings from the blind crustation, then the immobile blind marron is just a sitting duck so to speak.

On the bright side it may help flavour the trout flesh.

Bloody marron, I'm pissed off with them anyway for eating my fish so they'll have to deal with it. There are hides available for them. See what happens.

I realised a few things today.....

Should not have the clothes line so close to the fish tank or should remember to remove dry clothes prior to feeding fish

It is not easy to catch a fish when they are in a big tank. Was thinking about pulling one out for a look and possible consumption but couldn't get one! Might try again tomorrow with a hook and line

The Barra are amazing fish. They remind me of my old Labrador we use to have, they live to eat! They chase anyone who approaches the tank and plead starvation. The eat a LOT and poo even more. I was almost attacked earlier when trying to take a water sample. That will make things interesting as they get bigger.
Some of them would be approaching 10cm already. Very exciting. I'm not really sure how much to feed them as I don't really know how much they weigh. They eat everything that I feed them and they are getting 4 or more feeds a day. The filter seems to be handling it OK with all tests results being fine.
I'm trying to keep the feed up so they don't eat each other but I haven't seen any sign of that happening yet. Still no loses.
There is quite a size difference now between the biggest & smallest but I don't have options to move any at the moment.

I've been battling aphids in my Joi Choi but everything else seems good. Loving the sunny spring days.

The trout and other fish are all excellent and the water seems so clear compared to a week ago. Still getting nitrite readings though which is annoying. There is zero ammonia and the nitrate is increasing so I'm still hoping it will disappear soon.

I'm still loving living the aquaponics dream!

Got a few issues that I could use some advice on.

Managed to catch a couple of little silver perch that have survived in with the trout. While transferring them back to their section, I noticed they are infested with Ich. Thanks to this site we found some information and gave them a salt bath (14ppt) for 30mins.

What happens now?
When should we see improvement?
Will we need to repeat this process?
How do we avoid it happening again?
How are the plants going to handle the salt?

We checked all the other fish and they have no signs of Ich at all. We increased the salt level in general to about 2ppt just in case.

I am also yet to see any improvement in the nitrite level. It went up to 1ppm soon after we added the trout (nearly 4 weeks ago) and has stayed there. We've been adding salt and increased aeration. The fish all seem fine. The ammonia has been 0-0.25 during this period.

Should we be doing something about this or just keep riding it out?

Any information would be greatly appreciated as always

You are doing all the right things but keep the feed right down till the nitrite drops. Then you can start feeding at a slowly increasing rate

Ignore nitrite. I have been trying for 4 years to get that

This time of year the Perch are weak due to winter, and running out of fat stores, hence they get sick.

I just moved around 2000 Perch from their IBC storage to the big tanks, and lost about 10 of them over a week. They just cant handle it in their weakened state.

Hey OBO if you have 2000 Perch you wont be needing the ones I reserved for you I take it??

Yes, i want at least 4000 more of them.

Finally the nitrite has come down!
I backed off the feed only a little bit but I think it's more to do with the bacteria finally catching up.
The plants have consequently been really taking off and it's so awesome to see how quickly they can grow. Have been eating lettuce, parsley and strawberries so far.

The fish are fantastic. Been having a bit of a shuffle around.
We took out the tank divider (was only meant to be temporary anyway) and the trout seem much happier having the full run of the pond.
The goldies and small koi are in our new fingerling tank which is running with the main system just on gravity overflow.
The silver perch are not doing so well. Most of the ich cleared up but many of them have died and the others seem slow and dazed. They are now in a salted quarantine tank and we'll just have to see what happens. The water tests are great apart from pH bing on the high side (8). I don't know what else we can do for them.
The barra are awesome. Still haven't lost one which I think is remarkable. Some of the bolters have tripled in size since we got them over 3 weeks ago. They are quite friendly now which is good because having that many fish in the aquarium is very high maintenance. They don't mind me doing gravel vacuuming and water changes. Very much looking forward to getting them in the aquaponics system ASAP.

Hubby made me a seedling planter which is fantastic. I was having trouble digging a deep enough hole without all the gravel falling in again and without disturbing nearby plants. It's a bit like a tree planter. You twist it into the gravel, press it open, insert the seedling and lift up, wa la!

We're already talking about the next AP project, a Barra & Basil tank!

how did he make that ><