Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How is the organic fish food going for everyone?
Am interestedas I would consider getting some for the AP and the goldies I grow.
Then I could even sell my Goldies as Organic!!!
Look forward to what the consensus is.

The other question is is anyone doing micro/macro nutrient food for fish yet as this seems to be the next stage in the process...

Rob @Aquagold

I've now settled on a mix of blanched organic vegetables (pouring some hot water over them)and hard-boiled eggs. Mince and freeze, serve cold...

I find monitoring the fish eating quite easy with this: whilst it floats, hungry fish bite into it. Others snatch the ingredients as they sink. The rest seems to get eaten, too.

Adrian, any chance of some more details?

What vegies are you using?

What ratio of egg to vegies?

I'm always full of questions

mylesau, I use whatever vegies are available, including scraps. Especially a lot of Warregal (NZ spinach). Most vegetables contain enough liquid to produce ice--floating feed when adding the juice from the saucepan (blanching pot). Twice-daily quantity I estimate to be 250 - 300 ml which includes three chopped hard-boiled chicken eggs.

My stock: 135 SP size 60 - 250mm, 12 comets size 15cm, hundreds of platys, a few marron and a 350mm koi. There's a fair amount of azzola and watercress to nibble on and the platys seem to clean up a lot of algae.

My fish don't seem to be particularly, ravenously hungry. Also, they're slowing down as the water gets cooler. It's now about 16C.

I'm happy to answer your questions, mylesau.

Wheat germ is another cheap feed. Don't know how organic it is now though....
Still need to make sure you get plenty of Vitamin C in too.
Variety is the spice of life as far as diet goes for fish, if you can.
Rob

Thanks Adrian.

Aquagold, seems quite a few people use ground whole wheat and/or sprouted wheat. I'll be including this when I get around to trying to make my own fish food.

There is this thread on organic fish pellets which have been manufactured by a Brisbane company

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 445#102445

Quick update:
Stuart Rowland at NSW DPI in Grafton has reported very satisfactory uptake of the organic native perch pellets being produced by Applied Nutrition in Brisbane. So much so, they have ordered further stock to extend their trials at the Grafton facility.
Anecdotally, the fish show a preference for this species specific organic pellet over the inorganic pellets they had been fed previously.
The product will always be dearer than the major brands as it is very expensive to produce, however the flip side has been a reduction in fish mortalities. This has been attributed to the herb content in the diet helping to boost the immune system of the fish.

To date, not one bag of this product has been sold to Qld BYAPers despite the supposed interest shown early in the year.
It seems ppl up there are simply not prepared to pay the extra for a sustainable organic product despite the fact it is produced locally. C'mon guys!

Whats the premium on the price tt?

This may not be true at all TT. Is just as likely that people are using existing stocks of food. Us APers tend to take a while to get through a 25kg sack, particularly if like me they buy the sack just before they harvest the species and don't replace with the same species .

and TT - how would you know whether an APer had bought any. Has nobody from Qld bought any at all?

OBO - if buying direct here in Qld the premium is not much at all. I'll definitelly be looking to buy some when I next need perch food.

Spoke to the producer yesterday VB.
OBO, its 99 bucks delivered in Vic, so about $3000 delivered to Kal. Seriously, I had a look at it out of interest for you a month or so ago. It whacked out at 6 bucks a kilo or something, can't remember now. Get into Joel to bring it over. Like anything, it is about getting behind the brand and the price will come down in time.
My water temps are 10C atm. Haven't lost one fingerling and feeding this stuff exclusively in tiny qties 2-3 times a week. I reckon it's a winner.

Id buy anything right now to stop the SP from going belly up

So has he sold no feed in Queensland at all. My point is that eventhough I would announce myself as one of the BYAP people, not all people would and in fact not all BYAP members even post. In reality there is only a small active posting contingent in South East Queensland.

When selling to folks like us, inless we get big in our own backyard setups, producers need to realise that our feed will last us some time and that when a new product comes out then it will take some time for existing stocks to be used up. I wouldn't like him to think that we in SEQ will not support him or for that unsubstantiated thought to be perpetuated. I can see why people down south may not want to pay the premium that results from freight etc, but the cost for the feed here direct from the supplier seems quite reasoanble to me at least.