Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

damn....

Hi guys,

I buy the $6 from Golden ponds and previously from Fish and Lily and by april I have plate size Barra, Im guessing they at least double in size.

This year I have done the same but Ive also bought $2 Barra fry from GP about 2 months ago now.
They started in an aquarium for 4 weeks, they are now in the sump section of my Chop IBC.
Some of the larger ones are already eating 5mm pellets!

I intend to seperate the smaller guys into a 4ft aquarium and the larger in a 6ft at the end of the growing season and heat those two. Will be a good experiment on whether this 2 year growout will be worth while. BTW I had only purchased 25 fry and 100% survival rate so far assuming none have been eaten yet.

I was looking at the area I am going to be growing in... 6 meters Square. If I put tank in middle an grow beds all round outside (start with 2 work up to 5).. Then put 25% shade cloth over whole area, when I am done for day I can close gate that cuts it off from rest of yard. That "should" limit wind an cold into the area..... Maybe?...Then if I can find the best Heater for 2000 lt tank I would hope I can get away with it.

Theres lots of threads on heating, Andrew. Have a read through and unfortunately you'll find its all been tried before, much like cooling fish tanks.

yer I have been... Starting to think Barra long term is jsut a waste of time...

I just bought a 5 foot 500lt aquarium and it is sitting nicely in my workshop/shed. Some of my summer barra will go in there. Prob have the heater on 20C so they will not eat much nor contaminate the water much as they are on a cannister filter not ap. Is it going to work? Time will tell.

Just be prepared to monitor parameters and do lots of water changes. If you have an AP system just swap water between them just don't drop the temps too much or too quickly. I did similar with an overwinter system using catfish. But it was a continuous battle against nitrites, like most backyard RAS systems.

The heater will work pretty hard in a shed, so it wont make for good value for money but fun to try.

I did it last year, but with the advantage is my shed is a coral farm so well heated and insulated. Worked a treat some barra went in the AP this summer and have been harvested now. I left a few barra in the shed so they are now on the second over winter.

I have found feeding them a clean food helps, pellets are very messy. I have had them on whole pilchards or whitting, now feed them a clean fish fillet from some of the lesser quality fish I have caught. The wastes are quite clean and the growth great.

Gday All
Just saw this topic again & thought I would post an up date.
Out of the 50 Barra fingerlings 42 survived. Most of the mortalities happened in the first month due to cannibalism.

They have grown well over the last 7 months. From 5cm to 18cm.

My 42 Barra are now in a insulated IBC for the winter. It has a 300w heater, canister filter & solar powered air.

The heater is keeping the tank at a constant 20*c. Had a few issues with rising ammonia for the first three weeks & had to do a few water changes, in hindsight I should have cycled the canister filter for longer to allow the bacteria in it to build up ( even thou it was a used second hand filter ) But that has settled down now. I'm only feeding the Barra every third/forth day they tend to spook when I lift the lid on the IBC and don't expect much growth over the winter months.

oceanarium

Your Barra must have been big to be able to eat whole pilchards ?

Amazing setups: GTK I love that little self-contained system. oceanarium: A coral farm? You gotta post some pics

The barra were a little over a kg in the AP, they can eat a fairly large chunk though if the food is too big they will regurgitate it. They ones on their second winter now must be closing on 2kg pretty fast. Their water is 26C so they feed well each day.

This was the first one i harvested a few months back about 1kg, they are dam good chewin


The coral farm is my day job, that was why I started playing with the AP. When i get tiered of coral farming and need a break. I was going to shut it down for a good holiday, we don't get much time off. After a rest we will have a big insulated shed on a licenced aquaculture site

Perhaps i might try a AP farm, we can grow trout or barra year round the way it is set up we can heat or cool the room cheaply. I have all the pumps etc as needed and even I can modify the LED lighting for plant growth. Possibly even build a green house to filter the water.

I Could not find a wide shot of the farm, but this shows what we do.

wow, thank you. I figured it would be beautiful and it is. I've been landlocked for a long time so this is a sight for tired eyes.

Thanks Boss

oceanarium
Cool 1kg Barra in a year, that gives me something to aim for. Although the water temp may make a big difference.
The coral farm looks interesting also, I've done a lot of work at the Abrolhos Islands and there is a few coral farms getting established over there now.

You could definitely create some beautiful desktop backgrounds from those corral beds