Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think from memory we had baramundi here in the greenhouse at 39degrees. It was a few years ago now.

Mate you will prob find you are one of the many few that might possibly take the barra most of the way through the year.

p.s. system looks great, I hope you are proud of your efforts.

Thanks for the kind words guys!

39'C Wowza thats hot!! Hotter than my spa haha. I will try a few things to see if I can keep the temp down a bit.

On a side note....

Who can tell me what these are and how do I stop them from eating my zucchini leaves!?

Can't tell from the pictures even though you did a great job with them. The black stuff looks like frass/droppings to me and I'd be looking for snails or caterpillars. The reddish specks might be spider mites just starting to get going (which would make sense if your temps are getting higher).

Hum, that stuff on the leaf looks awful dry to be caterpillar frass to me. I'm used to the caterpillar droppings being more wet I suppose. But it definitely looks like bug damage and you also appear to be suffering some potassium deficiency and powdery mildew.

If it is caterpillars, Dipel dust or thuricide should help.

And perhaps some seaweed extract or spraying with eco rose wouldn't go amiss.

Hi Clarky,

May be Looper poop... Loopers are a type of catepillar, as per Scotty and TClynx's conclusions, and can be a big problem in Karratha at certain times, especially if you have any Poinciana trees nearby. I don't know how long you've been up there, if you've been there for a while you probably would've seen them already, but if not, you can come out in the mornings and see hundreds of them hanging out of your Poinciana tree on long threads. When they arrive they are normally in massive numbers, they can almost completely defoliate a Poinciana tree in a couple of weeks, so they could dessimate the plants in your AP system in the blink of an eye.

I'd remove the larger Loopers by hand, then as previously recommended, I'd be spraying Dipel every 2nd or 3rd day while they are around.

I like your Acalypha's in the background of some of the photo's. I used to have about half a dozen different varieties in my garden, they grow so well up there and they are so easy to clone. At certain times of the year they will attract grasshoppers, so keep an eye out for them also, they would love your AP veggies, and like the loopers, when they arrive they do so in large numbers.

I miss the Lippia lawns as well, that stuff is the greatest invention since sliced bread...

Also miss the fishing... and mud crabbing... and camping...

...and the speedway... where you don't have to take out a 2nd mortgage to take the family along for the night!

+1 aint that the truth

Well...... Here is the Looper Pooper.



I've killed about 20 of the bastards.

And my old mate google told me I have mealy bugs.



We had a grass hopper plague about 4 years ago. Whole town stunk of rotting grass hoppers. One night I woke to what I thought was rain. So I got up to have a look (never rains in Karratha). Turns out it was just grass hoppers landing on my roof.

Yep!... the one bad side effect of the lippa lawn... mealy bugs love it, but only if you let it grow long, then once they're in your lawn they'll sniff out those veggies quick smart. Have a look, I bet they're in the lippia, you'll find them in the areas where it's long, ie where there is no traffic compacting it, or in the shaded areas... then after the mealy bugs have moved in it'll get sooty mould and that patch'll die off. Best thing for the lippia is to keep it mowed and walk on it it as much as you can, keep it compact and the mealy bugs are much less likely to move in.

Have you had a Christmas beetle plague yet?... They come in every year, normally starting about now, but every few years they arrive in plague proportions.

So I have about 25 Barramundi fingerlings swimming around. They are about 50mm long. I got 25 to allow for any deaths during transport but they all survived so thats mint! As they get bigger I might sell some off to keep my numbers down. Not exactly sure how many I will be able to keep in there fully grown. They have been in the tank for 4 days now.

Here is a little video of the fishies.




They're still not eating yet but are swimming around pretty happy. They're showing more interest to food every day. I also salted the water. I only put in 100g of dissolved sea salt. But they look happy so not sure if i should bother putting anymore in. Any thoughts?

Brendan.

Hows the system going, Clarky?