Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does that cat food come smoked or gravalax?

Haha no, just fresh and vacuum sealed, which I'm told is just how cats like it

I BBQ'd the largest of the catch from Tuesday night last night, 621g after gutting, which along with a salad almost all of which was from the AP, made a delicious meal for 2

Looking good. Haven't tried trout on the bbq yet. Did you cook it on the grease proof paper?

Yes, cooked on the paper, with just a tiny amouunt of olive oil to get it started, and I add some thyme and lemon or lime juice during cooking. For the larger fish like this one a cover helps cook them right through the thickest parts, otherwise I have to tip them up onto their backs to make sure they are cooked through. This is what I end up having to do with the largest fish over ~800G, as the large wok lid wont fully cover them. I'll get around to making a suitably sized and shaped cover one of these days.

beautiful fish.

The weather and the water are starting to warm up now, and the trout are eating lots of pellets, despite their dwindling numbers. The remaining 108 ate their way through 700g of pellets on Monday, almost as much as the trout in the large system, which has twice as many fish.



I harvested another 5 trout on 10/9, largest 493g, average 433g, and 9 more on 11/9, largest 630g, average 543g. More to come out this week, as my brother wants a stack of them to put in his freezer.

After about 50mm of rain, mostly overnight, theres been a bit of overflow from the ST.

Try and old baymarie tray they work

Yes the Bain Marie tray would work, if only I had one I do have a large SS bread tin of similar shape, but it isn't quite long enough for the 1kg trout.

GB#9 showing good growth in the peas, garlic and chard over the past 3 weeks. I pulled the few beetroot as they weren't growing as fast, and I have heaps of them in other GBs.

Good to see you keeping the fish through the summer Gordon. Have you kept any over this winter also? I wonder how bit they would get if left for 2 or more seasons.

I put a new batch of 400 into the big system with the chiller in early Feb, and moved 140 of them into this system when the water had cooled down enough, on 26/4. There is only one runt from last years batch still in the big system, so it probably isn't a good guide to how big they would get in 2 seasons. However, I reckon up to 2kg. I had a 1200g one from last years batch, which had been in for 10 months and was <100mm when it went in.

I harvested 7 more last night, largest 824g, average 567g

Fish processing was somewhat interrupted when a huge tree (23m high and over 1m across the trunk at the base) fell down, right across our old Hilux, which fortunately came out with only a few dents, but my wife's plant nursery, full of expensive plants just purchased for a job, was completely trashed. My mum's car just has a few scratches and marks, as it was parked near where the top landed and only got hit by leaves and small branches.

geez gordon so glad to hear everyone was safe. There's something about harvesting trout and emergencies, it happens to me too. I always need to harvest when I least expect it, as its silly season and you're generally dressed up and ready to go to some function or other. Its quite an original excuse for not turning up.

1.2 kg that is amazing. I wonder if they would breed in the system once they reach sexual maturity? Then I'd have to come visit you and the cherries for some fingerlings.

Breeding them looks like a lot of effort, I couldn't do it in the main tanks. I've seen the setup at Arc-en-Ciel, and I think I'll leave it to Russell to deal with that, and just get my little fingerlings from him

Yikes! That is a huge tree. Do you know what made it go over? A 1200 gram trout? Holy smokes, 400 fingerlings? The Wife's plant nursery smashed? I'm so sorry to hear about the nursery. You two are quite the agri-aqua couple!
I never realized those tanks and systems were so big? On top of that big trees as well!