Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The wife was watching the dreaded box over the weekend when she called me over. There was an article on a Trout/watercress farm in the UK where the owner said they had conducted their own experiment where the trout eating just shrimp that lived in the water cress and channels, grew better than those who ate primarily the shrimp.

I know there was an entire eco system that was working, and that would be hard to replicate in a single IBC, but has anybody got eperience on growing their own feeder fish. I was giving my Silvers mozzie wrigglers in the spring, but thats a risky activity, and I don't want to be the cause of an outbreak of Ross River virus. Besides, I come up in whelts when bitten by the adult.

Are there gold fish that breed like nobodies business, that our fish would eat, or is it all in the too hard basket.

What sort of shrimp would grow out in small tanks? Can anybody grow them?

Think you'll find anyone that has tried them.... would confirm.. that the fish eat them faster than they can grow/breed....

The idea would be to grow the shrimp in a separate bed - there are some that are perfect for a floating raft bed for example - they eat the detritus that gets into the bed and most also skim off algae. There are even some that apparently are quite happy in GB's.

Gammarus are tiny crustaceans that you could stick in a radial solids filter and they would work on the fish poo, breaking it down to get maximum mineralisation - just keep an eye on them and when they get to high density, start scooping some out for the fish.

Glass shrimp apparently also go well as scavengers of waste, although from what I read they aren't as prolific as most gammarus so they would need a larger container to grow in to make sure there are enough surplus to feed your fish.

And if you find a good source of gammarus in Australia, please let me know. The alternative is to go out to your local lakes and streams and see what you can get in a fine net. Make sure the water is fresh - some of them require salt water periods to breed.