Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

can i perk them up with anything? live food? I just want to know they are eating..

salt

Had the same problem. from golden ponds on the larger barras from 3 weeks ago, I gave them sinking food, floating food, blood worms you name it, they wouldnt touch em, last few days I never see them eating but the tank is always clean

What are you covering the tank with, what do you have in the tank with them, do they still have white stripes

Does anyone have a good feed ratio for barra, silver perch are easy to work out becuase they feed in front of you but the barras being such shy things make it a bit more difficult, ive noticed the food sitting there for an hour without being touched and then other times gone in a minute, depends if they think someones watching

Ive been told that you can go by a fishes eye size relative to stomach size as a comparison for the feed as well. Myths / truths

Thanks

3-5% of body weight is a general guide.... reducing to 1% of body weight when they're harvest size...

Fish gape.... their mouth size... determines pellet size.... their eyes are just for vision...

How do people feed the barra? I have sinking pellets. Do you feed them and after a certain amount of time remove the left over food sitting on the bottom? I find they miss a lot of food and it sits on the bottom. It slowly gets moved to sit around the pump. I have been feeding my 70 - 330gram barra around two cups a day. I was thinking that that was no were near enough food. I'll have to do the maths. They are not as fun to feed as trout!

Ive got floating pellets called ridleys aquafeed, 6mm in size, mine wont eat if they think you are watching or are in the vicinity. To make it easy Ive fed a poly tube through the shade cloth and drop the food down the tube, this morning I dropped 40 6mm pellets in and all but 3 were eaten within 5 minutes from 11 barra approx 400 grams in size each, this afternoon the sun was behind me when I dropped the pellets down the tube so they knew I was in the vicinity, an hour later the food still had not been touched. Very very shy