Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Made a little progress today. Rented a bobcat with tracks and built a road to the front of the greenhouse, finished lining the growbeds and then filled all 12 growbeds with gravel. There's a lot of work that goes into these custom systems.

With 10 tons of gravel hanging from the frame, I feel pretty confident that the wind won't blow this greenhouse away -- now I can put the skin on. It may be a while before I get the full Aquaponics system going since I haven't even started building the fish tanks yet. But I can use my freezers to start.

Sounds like exciting times ems.

Every muscle in my body aches.

yup those is good times ... goood times !

sorry, i used to feel like that after work everyday..

I didn't get my greenhouse finished in time to house the bedding plants and hanging baskets my wife wanted to buy to resell. So I threw a small greenhouse together in the front yard.

While we were away picking up the flowers (gone two days) one of my tanks died -- someone unplugged the air pump and the filter had plugged up and stopped.... With a styrofoam raft with a few sickly plants on top -- the water didn't have much contact with air -- I was relying on that air pump to keep enough oxygen in the water. It sure smelled bad -- three rotten goldfish . Luckily I had moved the one Tilapia out of that tank and put him in with the other Tilapia.

On the subject of Tilapia -- I checked the two "mothers" and found them very hungry. Obviously they don't have eggs in their mouths any more -- but I can't see any fry. How big are they when they hatch? Do they hover at the top? bottom? swarm? I'm wondering if they are getting sucked into the pump or siphon and being distributed onto the GB.

The fry are quite visible after Momma lets them out of her mouth. Tadpole-shaped, light-colored, and sizeable. See here for fry on their first day of release from Momma's mouth.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... &start=375

Momma was maybe 5 inches long in that picture, and the gravel is 3/8 inch. The fry will start out clustering near Momma, and slowly disperse as they get older. Once fry have been released, feed Momma since she's really hungry, having gone a week or more without eating. My guess is that your fry turned into snack food.

You want fries with that ....

Unless they have been eaten...................

I guess I should have checked them earlier -- they ate all the roots off the bottom of my strawberries and were so hungry that they almost jumped out of the water to get the food. I had wrapped the tank with paper because they would freak out every time someone came in the room or the light came on -- I could hear them banging into the sides of the tank from my bedroom.

So now what? Should I put a male in with them or put them back in with the males?

On the assumption you want more fry, I would hold off on the male and feed them well for a couple weeks to give them a chance to ready some eggs and build up a fat reserve. Then introduce one male to their tank. They should get busy quite quickly. Once the male has done his work, remove him. Place a divider between the girls within the first week of incubation. Monitor carefully so you can give them food when they release fry. The paper wrap is a good idea so they don't spook as easily.

sounds like a good idea, Thanks, Janet. By a divider, do you mean a tank divider or would pots or pieces of pipe be sufficient?

Maybe this would be a good time to move all the females together (or at least the ones I think are females) to make sure I've sexed them properly.

I usually can only feed them once or twice per day -- perhaps that is a problem?

I use a piece of diffuser for a ceiling-mounted fluoroescent light as a tank divider. It is a plastic grid with half-inch holes. Water flows through, but it is a complete barrier to fish. Females about to release fry can get nasty, and I would hate for one brooding female to injure another. I started to see that problem with my brooding gals, and got the divider in quite quickly.

Feeding once or twice a day should be just fine. Regardless, the gals will need a couple of weeks to get their next batch of eggs ready. No sense subjecting the gals to an eager male when they will not be ready. If they are both good and ready when he goes in, your 2 batches of fry will be very close in age and can be kept together. If they are even a couple weeks apart in age, you will get higher rates of cannabalism because of the size differences.

looks like we might have some more Alaskan aquaponics members joining. I couldn't get my backyard greenhouse finished in time to house my wife's hanging baskets so FIL and I built her one in the front yard -- just a small 20' x 24' We were done in two days. Several neighbors have been by and are very interested in the aquaponics concept.

spread those AP germies!

it's contagious