Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Forgive me if this has been asked already, but can you keep goldfish in DWC beds? Will they pick at and eat the roots of the plant, or will everything be ok? I was thinking about simplifying the system and instead of having a separate fish tank, just make a few "bio towers" filled with bio balls to do the nitrite to nitrate conversion, that would aerate the water at the same time, then pump back to the raft tanks.

Is this too radical of an idea? Looking forward to everyone's input. Thanks!

I'm not sure about goldfish but someone may have tried them. I would think that a few red eared sunfish might keep snails cleared out of the troughs without hurting the plants.

Red eared sunfish? got any more info on them?

There's a ton of information online and I'm not really sure what you're looking for. They're in the sunfish group like Bluegill. FYI - Bluegill will also work although you won't see as much about them eating snails . I have some bluegill and I don't find any aquatic snails in the Fish tank but they are still in the filters or anywhere the bluegill can't get at them. Can't say for Redear but Bluegill prefer sinking chow and aren't as fond of pellets as they are of worms but they will eat pellets once they are used to them. I have a surplus of eggs from my chickens so I hard boil the eggs and feed the fish with pieces of these.

Here's what Wikipedia has on redear sunfish - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redear_sunfish

I think yellow perch might also work for snail control and probably grow faster. Might be worth a try if they're legal in your state (getting a transport permit for them isn't likely here in Oregon even though you can find them in local waters, they aren't native)

Thanks for the great info. Also never would have thought about feeding the fish surplus eggs too, that's brilliant.

I hate to peel hard boiled eggs so I use an sous vide water heater set to 165F for one hour (This is the one I have - (https://www.amazon.com/Anova-Culinary-Precision-Bluetooth-Included/dp/B01HHWSV1S/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1533833792&sr=1-5&keywords=anova+sous+vide). The eggs are in ziplock bags with shells already removed. I cool these in a bowl of ice cold water and store in fridge until needed (usually do a dozen eggs at a time). I just use a spoon to break this up into small bites for the fish. A word of warning - this might not be up to human standards so if you're trying this way for yourself consult some of the online information for using this technique to cook eggs.

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It's tough for the chickens to keep up now that I've discovered German Pancakes aka Dutch Babies .

1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt (reduced from original recipe that used 1 teaspoon)
2 Teaspoons sugar (reduced from original recipe that used 2 Tablespoons)
3/4 cup flour

4 Tablespoons butter

Set the oven to 425F and place the butter in an ovenproof frying pan. Put the pan into the oven to melt the butter while the oven heats (don't burn the butter).

Combine the other 5 ingredients in a blender. Since mine has cup markings I put the milk in first then the eggs then salt and sugar with the flour last. Blend briefly then use a spatula to clean any flour that's sticking to the sides off and blend again. Once the butter is melted remove the pan and add the mixture then pop it back in the oven for 15 minutes. It will puff up like a souffle but will collapse after it's taken out.

Don’t think about goldfish in your troughs, they will nibble the roots down to nothing and they are so effective at doing it. I kept guppies in mine just in case of mosquitoes they breed and thrived to the point we had to regularly reduce there numbers.