Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Most fish are, river fish tend to be slimier than ocean fish due to their surrounds but it is only a protective coating to prevent damage and bacterial infections from harming them. With your fish being in a system loosely representing river conditions e.g. smaller bodies of water and free flowing, the slime factor should be more pronounced.

looking great as usual vb.

Can't believe how long it's been since I posted here. The system will be retired soon, with the gravel transferred to a grow-bed on the Barra system and eventually the grow-bed and stand will also make their way to the barra system - with some new media.

I have not been feeding the perch for the last couple of weeks - though they do get a good feed of algae from the sides of the tank - and will in the next week or so harvest all the remaining fish. I think there are probably only about 7. A couple are quite large, but a couple are a bit smaller. I'll harvest all of them though - because it is not worth keeping the system going with just a couple of fish.

The thread will be closed when I shut down the system. I'm a bit emotional just thinking about it - but it's not like it'st he end of my AP endeavours :-)

You could play that song, you know the one everything must come to an end aha ahah aaahh dadadadah

or the last post

hey every one am new to this whole new aquaponic thing. What is the best fish tank to use, i have a 1000 litre one, you know the square ones in a frame or should i source a round tank, I am looking at doing something in an existing 6 mtr by 3.5 mtr glass house in bendigo vic, does any one have some ideas as to lay out cheers
rod

Hi mizzie welcome to ap madness those square tanks[ibc/s] are a good cheep fish tank [i have 2 soon extending to 4 ] a lot of other members also use them the glasss house sounds great you nearly have enough to start .When you do ask a lot of questians and post photos [we love photos] [if you would like to see an established system email me just down in sunbury]

Pulled some fish out of the freezer and filleted and skinned them for dinner tonight.

Between me and the 2 boys, had 3 fish in total, being a jade perch a silver perch and a sooty grunter. The sooty grunter was a ring in when I bought my jades when first starting up.

All of the fish were beautiful, including the sooty. I did them in cornflake crumbs - one of my boys is glutent intollerant.

The fact that they were tasty is no biggy (kinda expected), but the reason I posted is that I harvested these fish in March/April and they've been in the freezer ever since. This sort of storage time is not recommended for fish, but the storage had not apparent ill effects in terms of taste or texture. This is good, because when I have a lot of fish in my system, I'll be inclined to harvest periodically and freeze, rather than harvest to demand. THe main reason for this is the need to purge before harvest, which makes it a pain in the arse to do a fish or 2 at a time.

VB have you noticed much difference in the taste or texture of your purged fish, cause I tried it and couldn't tell the difference.

Never really tried unpurged, but I have it on good authority (commercial growers) that purging significantly improves tast

That's because the commercial growers are pond based aquaculture... using algae bloom techniques... particualarly blue-green algae...

It's the blue-green algae that causes the "off-flavour" in Silver Perch... not "nitrates" as was stated by another AP forum...

Some disagreement about pruging methods... most purge in fresh water for at least a week...

Stuart Rowland actually maintains that they (and most freshwater fish) should be purged in saline water ... 5ppt...

I'm talking about growers that use tanks. I know about the blue green algae thing, but I also thought the pellets may impart some off flavours, particularly in the fat of the fattier fish (like perch).

I'll never forget that time that I was compelled to smell the shit that one of my perch had done when I pulled it out of the tank. It was soooooo bad - even worse than chicken shit. Having said that - this in its self does not necessarilly mean anything, chickens are not purged and their shit smells just like chicken shit. Of course it is important to make sure when filleting etc to not let the gut contents make contact with the flesh.

Can just see it, sniff

Funny thing human nature. Was inevitable that it would happen - but only once .

FWIW I haven't purged any of the tilapia and haven't had problems with off flavors, but they don't live where algae could survive because it's dark. Would be interesting to gather data from members about whether they've noticed off flavors and whether purging has helped.