Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

SP prefer warmer water, they just have a larger temperature tolerance when it comes to lower temperatures. They will be stressed from the move and it would be better to lay off the feed for a few days until they settle anyways. Stressed fish will not eat.

You can crush the pellets if you like, its usually a good idea to feed a range of sizes as larger fish will go for the larger pellets and the smaller ones will scavenge the smaller pieces of crumb. 3-4mm is a good all round pellet size.

Trout pellet size per weight recommendations are as follows..

20 - 85gm 3mm
85 - 200gm 4mm
200 - 300gm 5mm
300 - 750gm 6mm
750 plus 7 or 8mm

But this would be different for SP as they have smaller mouths but gives you an idea anyway.

Ease of on the feed, say every 2nd day until they looked back to normal .... will do. I thought they preferred it a bit cooler, so assumed the drop in temp from the two tanks [previous owner of the SP and my tank..] was a got thing but the opposite seems to be the case .. as I said I will just ease off on feeding the fish apart from throwing some few food in for the goldfish [when I see them at the surface ...] .... hopefully by the weekend everything will be looking better.

But yeah, I will let a bit of light into the tank [should I do that?] .. right now the tank is 2 x shade clothed so the tank receives no direct sunshine at all - water is cold, quite cold - more than 1 person has remarked that to me ... not sure if it will help [but it would warm the water a tad bit which might just be a good thing?] .. see I know that direct sunlight and algae aren't a good combo - so gotta watch that I suppose..... but should I bother getting rid of 50 percent of my shade cloth [either 1 layer as it's doubled or shade half the tank -the other 50 percent getting direct sunlight.. etc ...]?

edit - cheers for the pellet size recommendations... helpful that.

You can get floating thermometers from Cheidy AP or online for next to nothing. Handy to have one floating around in the tank to refer to from time to time. The shade cloth is serving a good purpose not allowing direct sunlight to hit so best to leave it. Reduce your pumping at night will assist keeping temps higher. You be surprised though, your FT temps are probably higher than you think.

A thermometer is definitely a good idea! I've got a little probe thing from Jaycar that 'remembers' the highest and lowest temperatures it's hit since the last time I reset it. Silver perch can tolerate temperatures between 2-38 C (though not for long if it hits the extreme edges!), but that doesn't mean they're happy through that whole range; they grow best between 23-28 C, probably won't eat at all under 10 C, and are extra vulnerable to fungal infections etc under about 16 C especially if the temperature changes a lot suddenly. Knowing the temperature tells you things like how hungry they're likely to be, and how worried you should be about things like ammonia spikes (higher temperature and higher pH make ammonia more dangerous, and if the fish are outside their temperature comfort zone then any problems with water quality etc will add to the stress).

My water temperatures are comfortably in the mid-20s right now (optimum growth range, woohoo!) and the water still feels quite cool; it won't feel warm to the touch unless it gets up to at least the low to mid 30s, at which point the fish would be feeling too hot and not wanting to eat much.

So it seems when it comes to large bodies of water, compared to say a coke bottle lol - direct sunlight or the lack of it -doesn't swing the water temps either way ..... .. it seems large bodies of water are affected by air temp more than direct sunlight, right? ... .. that said I'm finding it near impossible to see the bottom 2/3's of the tank tho' and felt/feel that having some direct sunlight into the tank would help this BUT it seems not as algae love direct sunlight etc etc ..... at night say a torch aimed into the water might be the better solution? .. or a small submerged off/on light used at night? ....... I just need be able to see the bottom of the tank from to time [ohhhh and the water is quite clear atm .. main tank is 1/2 dug into the ground tho'].

>> it seems large bodies of water are affected by air temp more than direct sunlight, right?

yes when they are attached to media grow beds...particularly if rock media rather than clay.

direct sunlight will happily heat up your tank as well.
shade is good for everything when it comes to the fish tank.

torch works pretty good. Only way I ever see if my yabbies haven't eaten each other.
black fish (by design) are harder to see in shadows anyway.

I have good news fish feeding well, crushing up the larger pellets was successful. The hiding hole no doubt assisted and yeah was a good idea but I suppose like humans, more than 1 things goes into a fish being stressed.