Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What a Lover Boy I have!! He's now working on his second girlfriend. I can't get too close to the tank, but zoomed in as best I could. The new couple is excavating in front of the second breeding cave (terra cotta pots in this tank). I may have even more fry coming. Uh oh!!

Oh, the female hiding behind the uplift tube is the Third String Choice. The Most Favored Concubine is off-camera.

Just watcing one of my girls at the moment, her eggs have hatched and I can see the little flashes inside her mouth. The other females eggs haven't hatched yet... The one with the fry in her mouth, as well as becoming more aggressive has a dark stripe down her side, a few dark spots, and darker eyes.. Perhaps something to do with the stress of the eggs hatching out, because the one with eggs still in her mouth doesn't have this..

Perhaps she has put on her war paint!

Well, my Most Favored Concubine is still holding eggs while the courtship of the Second Concubine continues at the other end of the tank. I'm at the parents' beach house for a few days with the girls, so I can't watch for a hatching. I still think she's holding eggs, not fry, since she hasn't gotten aggressive.

My Red Wriggler order from Worm Man finally came and the worms were released into the grow beds. Of course down here at the beach, fishing happens year-round. I may have to stop at a bait shop for a container of extra worms. They are probably cheaper than dirt around here.

The basil has really taken off, and I planted some mixed lettuce/mesclun that is also doing nicely. Wasabi is continuing to suffer, even though I cooled the water down a bit for them. I think once Spring has fully sprung, they will give it up. My cucumber has male blossoms, and the eggplant seedlings are doing well. Beans are slowing down and seem to be dying back a bit. As the cucumber grows, I will have to pull some of the beans out anyway.

Tilapia are getting bigger by the day. Life is good.

I found a box of nice fat nightcrawlers. Good fishing worms. Are those OK to put in the gravel beds? I take it that the different types of worms would just ignore each other. Will the nightcrawlers help with clean-up in the beds, be worthless, or crawl about the house at night, terrorizing the children?

in my opinion compost worms would be the best choice for the beds (whaterver type suits your cliamate) not sure what the nightcrawlers are.

Janet, I saw your post to ems about handling the 'officials'. You are the smooth talking outlaw.
Nite crawlers bring a pretty penny for bait. They will not affect your other worms. Why not toss them in and givem a go. Perhaps your family will not be buying bait anymore.
Steve, nite crawlers are big worms that are mighty tempting to fish and a very good mouthful (for fish, I do not care for them myself).

gee Doug you really must be fussy

Yes Jaymie. That is the luxury of having plenty to eat. A week or two without food and I would be up for seconds.

There is a children's book called "How to Eat Fried Worms". A boy accepts a challenge to eat a certain number of worms--one a day. I read many years ago, but it was a classic!


Why thank you, Doug! It's all in what portion of the truth you choose to present!

So I got back from the beach, but forgot the nightcrawlers!! Dad will bring them along in a couple of days if they don't serve them for dinner tonight.

I came home to discover that I now have a second female brooding! The first brooder has turned very dark colored and the little somethings in her mouth seem to wiggle a bit now. I need to re-arrange some fish! The father is the same as the first brood, so the one tank seems to be especially lucky! The other tank with potential breeders is not doing as well. The male is too aggressive, so I need to do some figuring. I think he just went back on the menu.

OK, I have moved the aggressive male breeder back to grow-out, and moved the favored male breeder to the other tank, along with the third-string concubine. So that makes it 2 brooding females in the one aquarium, and the favored male with 4 probable-females in the other tank. He's already flirting. I like him a lot. Gentle with the ladies, and a handsome pearly white with orange trim on the dorsal.

The brooders have relaxed a lot judging on their new coloratation (more silver, less dark gray). They're hanging out together in the middle of the plastic plant jungle, chewing their eggs. The female with the older clutch is puffing out her throat considerably more. Very cool to watch!!

The goal is to raise up the double set of fry (they're one week apart in age), and share those with John and Mike. Addtional proven females might be available too, if Romeo has anything to say about it!!

Our fifth grade teacher read us that story back in the day.

I haven't had a new set of fry in the sump yet, but the eight or so are getting bigger. Fed them a bit of goldfish flake today - what are fry supposed to be fed?

I have some 40% protein flakes for the fry. I will just powder that. They would probably also like hard boiled egg yolk. Blend that with a little water to get a smooth paste, and then rub it between your fingers in the tank water to disperse it. Watch to see that they take it. That might be too fine for them to bother with. Since I haven't actually seen the fry yet, I don't know how big they start out. The other trick to use with egg yolk is to prepare it as above, but then smear some on to a terra cotta pot and let it dry. Then drop the whole pot into the tank. Fry will pick it off the surface of the pot. I hear discus breeders use that trick. Of course algae on the walls is probably yummy, too.

Is this some kind of Easter April Fool's thing with the trick about using hard boiled eggs?