Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

An update on the barra. About a week ago, I noticed some getting really a lot bigger, and others not doing too much. I have been trying to not feed them too ,much as they don't have much filtration, and the last thing I want is a system crash, but it seems maybe I have not been feeding them enough I have not had any floaters, and they all seem happy and healthy but I am sure numbers are dwindling
And also, the size disparity seems to be gone, add one and one get 2! The big ones must be eating the little ones, because there are very few little ones left.

I had my first successful attempt at feeding them silk worms this morning. They ate them with relish, and that was after I fed them pellets. I went home at lunch time to feed them and they were ravenous. I don't think there was more than one or 2 that didn't come up to be fed

The only solution I can see is get the grow beds on line, and split them up into the 2 tanks. I have ordered my backup air and a small wattage pump to pump water through black pipe to heat the poly tank. ATM I couldn't care whether the hot water pipe leaches as it breaks down in the sun or not, if I don't get some more food into these guys, there will only be 10 left anyway!!!
It seems like they are taking care of all the killing themselves, I need not worry about me!!

At least the fish arent going to waste, just expensive food, and less for you to eat. If you manage to get that other tank ready, grading them will solve the problem completely (until they grow more anyways)






i got mine from a gardening place (garden grove for all you South Aussies), but that is the only place i have seen it. It was alot cheaper than ebay, i got a bag full of it for $2.20 (the bag was prob about the size of half the normal sized shopping bags/green bags)

cool off to get some silk worms for me

Eating each other Monya? Do you find any scraps? generally the bony head is quiet difficult for them to demolish quickly.

I have only every seen my larger fish eat very small fish, ie feeder goldfish that they can swallow. I have seen larger fish attack and kill smaller ones in my system, but for fish that might be about 1/4 of the size of large ones, the large fish still only manage to peck a few bits from the carcass, there is always a carcass left as evidence unless they can be swallowed whole...

Is your shed shut most of the time? Your not getting birds or cats or something else into there are you? Have you checked your pump inlet? Any sign of fish remains stuck to the outside of the pump inlet

Yeah, some good points. No fish scraps lying around at all. It's so hard to tell, no way of counting them I got the bacteria today, am going to seed the beds tonight, then open the tap between the 2 tanks as them temp in the vat is up to 27 and the poly tank around 20, so combine them, and I should be rockin. I will do a count as I change the fish over.

Does anyone have any idea how much to feed these guys. They are abojut 70 mm long now, and maybe only one or 2 don't come up for food, they wait below if any slips thru the mass up top.

I am not convinced now that they are killing each other. More investigation required, and I do keep the shed door shut at all times, but the cat would be able to get into the greehouse undr the bottom rail, although, it would struggle to get into the shed most of the time. I very much doubt it's the cat.
All good fun! Can't wait to get the plants in!

ran a hose from my sump in a coil onto the paving today then back into tank got the temp up to 25, hope my barra start going like yours now...

you will not beleive the difference a couple of degrees makes. Mine at psycho today, took my dad to see them at lunch time and he couldn't beleive it.

My fish are so cryptic you'd swear there are none. then I pull the food out and there are 8 or 9. sometimes... the 12 of them come out.

I did have a fish that ate lots of little fish, a kokopu. It was ten times the size though and swallowed them whole.

That's one real strong point for a series of IBC's or similar - grading cantankerous species in several grades while still within a small space.

There were 2 , possibly 3, causes of death in my barra
1 - they jumped and discovered that air dries out their sensitive gills
2 - Competition for food - the larger ones bullied the very small ones and they starved to death
3 - they got some sort of wasting disease... the body became super skinny and the head looked HUGE - thought it was the same as No.2 but when I shifted the smaller ones to their own pond some still wasted away
since placing them in the IBC I have not lost a single one

hohoho

I'd really like to see Stu drafting his barra into, say, 3 lots. Drafting cattle and sheep is relatively easy, with the little swinging gate - drafting pigs is hard, 'coz they're pointy, fast, determined and heavy - a successful fish drafter would leave the one-armed fiddle player in the dust.

Well, I am now convinced that they are not eating each other , nor are they dying at the hands of the pump. I think if there isn't the full quota minus one, then I got ripped off on my numbers, time will tell.

The "minus one" is my first confirmed casualty discovered last night. Must have been the runt of the littler, dead on the bottom of the tank. Hadn't grown at all, he had a very undignified burial procedure. A photo for the coroner and a fling into the garden

All others are seemingly fine and water parameters are normal, so it must have been a one off hopefully at this stage.

what! you didn't feed it to the cat (that one that you threatened to splatter on a sliding glass door - the one that GD was apologising for unnecessarily)

chooks are always good for disposing of surplus carcasses

Didn't think of either of those methods, so the poor little bugger will be pushing up daisies.