Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok so I weighed my fish on June 18'th and they were about 6 grams. 36 days later on July 24'th the weigh 43 grams. Is this a good growth rate?

I am feeding 3% body weight using cheap catfish food from a local store. I think I was over feeding for a while too thanks to the family who love to feed the fish too. I was not sure this food was good enough. What do you guys think?

Sounds pretty good to me though I'm no expert.
I have seen some charts showing recommended protein % for different fish and I was suprised to see that catfish had a lower recommended amount than tilapia but not a huge difference. Of course all those sorts of numbers are for top growth rates in commercial systems. I expect in our situations, most of us want a little more variation in sizes since we don't usually intend on harvesting all our fish at once to sell them.

My tilapia really like the catfish food after it has been softened up a bit but that is probably because the catfish pellets I got are quite large. I think I will be going for the smaller pond diet pellets for all the fish when I next need to purchase feed.

I was reading about feed quantities, etc. this morning and ran across this pdf file...
http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/ef ... rac114.pdf

It gives pellet sizes, amounts of feed, etc. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

If at good water temp's you have been under feeding,,,10% body weight for babies(45% +protein recommended).Nowthey are 43grammes,,the catfishfood(30%protein?) will be fine as long as the pellets are small,,Tilapia VERY much prefer very small pellets.oushould be feeding around 5% body weight at this stage,,,,split over 3 feedings if possible,,but 2 wil lsuffice.

Its a 20% protein feed. They seem to not eat it all if I feed any more than 3% or it dissolves into a mess

They definately do better at 30% protein and split the feeds,,best is 3 feeds a day.
Also good to give them a vegie only day,,,say Sunday,no pellets but lots of veg off-cuts,,,seems to break the bordom with pellets.

I expect that a 20% protein pellet is meant as a supplement feed to catfish in natural ponds that could perhaps survive without being fed pellets at all but the pellets provide for faster growth.

Ya definitely will want to source a better feed if you can. With the protein at 20%, they probably get full before they get as much good nutrition as they could take. Wow, I had thought most catfish feeds were at least 30%.

The catfish feed I use in Thailand is 30%.....,The only feed pelletsI've seen as low as 20% where for yabbies/red-claw.

I just dont have any other options locally.. This area is big on sport fishing, but no one raises fish.. If I were to fed them boiled eggs would that be enough protein?

Dan,,,do you have access to cheap fish-oil,,,often used for fishing?
That could be addedto the pellets to raise the protein level.

I cant say I have ever seen fish oil other than at the health food store in really small expensive bottles.

Most fishing places have it,,cheap tuna oil or similiar,,you mix it with bread etc to make berley.
I think it's about $5 a litre here in Aus.

Dan, you might want to ask at the store where you bought the catfish pellets. Our local feed store carries Aquamax and was able to special order in 50# quantities the feed I needed for the tilapia. Their fiingerling pellets were perfect and they already had those stocked.

Dan you should have 'Tractor Supply' in your part of the woods. I get mine there. It's 32% in a 50lb bag for about $20. They also have(had) a 20lb bag that was 36% for ~$13. They didn't have the 36% stuff last week when I ran out.

Here are the locations for Texas:

ABILENE, ALICE, ALVIN, AMARILLO, ARANSAS PASS, ATHENS, ATLANTA, BASTROP, BAY CITY, BAYTOWN, BEAUMONT, BEEVILLE, BENBROOK, BOERNE, BONHAM, BOWIE, BRENHAM, BROWNWOOD, BULVERDE, BURLESON, CALDWELL, CANTON, CARTHAGE, CASTROVILLE, CEDAR PARK, CENTER, CLEBURNE, COLLEGE STATION, CONROE, CORSICANA, CROCKETT, DECATUR, DENTON, DRIPPING SPRINGS, EASTLAND, EL CAMPO, ENNIS, FLORESVILLE, FREDERICKSBURG, GAINESVILLE, GATESVILLE, GEORGETOWN, GONZALES, GRAHAM, GRANBURY, GREENVILLE, HENDERSON, HEREFORD, HILLSBORO, HUNTSVILLE, JACKSONVILLE, JASPER, KATY, KERRVILLE, KILLEEN, LAGRANGE, LAKE JACKSON, LAKE WORTH, LIBERTY, LIVINGSTON, LOCKHART, LONGVIEW, LUBBOCK, LUFKIN, MANSFIELD, MARBLE FALLS, MARSHALL, MC KINNEY, MESQUITE, MEXIA, MIDLAND, MINEOLA, MINERAL WELLS, MISSION, MOUNT PLEASANT, NACOGDOCHES, NAVASOTA, NEW BRAUNFELS, ODESSA, ORANGE, PALESTINE, PARIS, PLAINVIEW, PLEASANTON, PORTER, RICHMOND, ROBSTOWN, SAN ANGELO, SAN BENITO, SAN MARCOS, SEGUIN, SHERMAN, STEPHENVILLE, SULPHUR SPRINGS, SWEETWATER, TAYLOR, TEMPLE, TERRELL, TEXARKANA, TOMBALL, TYLER, UVALDE, VICTORIA, WACO, WAXAHACHIE, WEATHERFORD, WESLACO, WICHITA FALLS WES, WYLIE