Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I managed to get hold of four very nice Black Bream for my aquarium... finally!!! These are some pretty nice looking fish and should adapt well to the aquarium. They are about 18-20 cm (18 inches) long.

I have been trialling them on particular foods... brine shrimp, snails, blood worms, river prawns and live fish. I am worried about the two very nervous yabbies in the tank which are still trying to defend their territory. The bristle-nose catfish don't seem fussed though.

Two are eating and very hungry, two are still a bit wary of their surroundings still. A couple of small white spots on the tail fins of two of them, I don't think it is ICH, but have raised the temp and added salt (3 ppt) just to be certain.... I have been told these guys are acceptable to some disease, so I will keep an eye on them.

Black Bream, species summary and useful information...

Temp: 14-30 Deg Celcius (57-86 F)
PH: 7.5-9
Salinity: Black Bream will tolerate salinity happily from 0 - 16 ppt (can survive 48 pp)

Food: Ridleys Native Pellets, Frozen Food (Beef Heart, Blood Worm, Brine Shrimp), Live fish, Small live shrimp. Basically anything that moves. They are heavily carnivorous and will quickly spit out anything that isn't meat.

Growth Rate: Slow to moderate growers. Salinity levels can effect growth rates and it is recommended to always have some salt in the water, eg 2 ppt.

Breeding: Black Bream may breed in captivity however the scale of operations must be big enough to accommodate the mature adults. For further information see PDF here http://wwwscieng.murdoch.edu.au/centres ... 0bream.pdf. Some of the studies were conducted by my uncle David Tiivel. I was able to visit the test ponds on a couple of occasions. It is a good reference.

Nutritional Facts: (Per 100g)
Kilojoules 440 (105 Calories)
Cholesterol 27mg
Sodium 84*mg
Total fat (oil) 0.7g
Saturated fat 40% of total fat
Monounsaturated fat 24% of total fat
Polyunsaturated fat 36% of total fat
Omega-3, EPA 23mg
Omega-3, DHA 87mg
Omega-6, AA 40mg

Suitability in Aquaponics: High, must have sufficient filtration and adequate food source. Slow growers, ceptable to some diseases.
Suitability in Aquarium: Very High, good water quality is a must and fresh food.

TimC, Have found the best bait to catch black bream IS black bream.
They are cannibal's and will rip into one another if one is sick.
Good score though and hope you do well with them.
P.S. the last one I have is still going fine on brine shrimp and goldfish flakes

Gold fish flakes... really? Gotta try it.. flakes or that crumbly stuff? Brine shimp and blood worms alone will get kinda expensive...

every time i see a bug/spider/worm/snail it goes in to and the bream takes care of it,they appear to be a fairly hardy fish once they get used to their environs, unfortunately I killed 10 straight up transferring from foam esky to tank

I had a battery and inverter with me, I ran two air pumps with air stones in the esky. I could have kept them in their for at least 3-4 hours, as long as the temp stayed low. I had them home within 2 hours.

Apparently they will eventually take food from your hands when they get settled in.

It wasn`t the transport that killed them,I had battery aerator in esky and transported 400kms,temp around 19-20deg.It was trying to get them to settle in tank/tub and a stinking hot day.
But I have learnt for next time

Yeah, nice looking fish the Black Bream and also real good eating. Their major problem in an aquaponics system is that they are very slow growing. I guess that only matters if you plan to eat your fish though.

your bream still going ok Timc

Yeah just fine... as I expected some are showing a few signs of ICH/White Spot. I have the water at 3 ppt Salt and the heat up a few degrees so hopefully I can catch it early... Three are eating ok... they won't take to pellets yet. Got them on blood worms, brine shrimp and gambusia.

Bought some glass shrimp today and my god they go crazy for em... they get into a frenzy, the yabbies get the drift and RUN and HIDE.

Tim, what sort of temp range are you working with, whats the optimum range?

Thinking of maybe trying a few Bream... thought of feeding them what we as fishermen call "yabbies" (post elsewhere) which I can obtain free, apart from a bit of work pumping them, and abundantly.

Know from my days fishing that they are THE NO 1 bait... bream love them... not surprised they go the glass shrimp

Optimal temp range is 14-25 degrees celcius... Mine is sitting on 25 Degrees atm (ICH). The moore river was 28 degrees when we were up there and 22 when the sand bar broke and the tide came in. So they survive in varied temperature levels.

I use river prawns as bait usually, but have used mullet (which jump in the boat... I kid you not) and yellowtail.

Hey guys, I have added some extra info on the first post in this thread. I was hoping that some of us could make a series of threads dedicated to quick reference information on different fish species. So thread title can be:
'Common Name - Scientific Name'. Would anyone have any objections if I got the mods to clean up and possibly sticky this thread? Maybe just restrict posts to pictures and important fish related information.

I like the idea. I have tidied the thread up somewhat.

I like the format you have used and that others have both asked questions and added interesting facts.

will make the thread a sticky.

Nice work.

Thanks Steve...

We need a few others.... I think Silver/Jade Perch (EB, ?), Tilapia (J7), Brown/Rainbow Trout (Troutman), Tandanus (Steve), Barra (Monya), Someone has Redfin. Maybe a marron one (Simmo), Yabbies, have I missed any...? You can fight over who does which, just one of each though!

Just get a heap of pics and really useful first hand info. Make it direct and to the point. Make sure to keep the titles the same format (Thats the perfectionist in me). Give a quick intro to your experience with the species and anything you have learn't (even the hard way). Then ideal/recommend conditions, nutritional facts (if possible) and feeding/breeding...

TIMC

I found this article that suggests Black Bream are not siuted to fresh water applications. It is a summary of research done by Murdoch Uni and Freo TAFE.

Freo Tafe is where we are getting our Black Bream, could be interesting...

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/aq/aq024/index.php?0404