Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anyone have a native turtle as a part of their AP system, a friend of mine has one in an indoor tank he uses some of the water on his "plant" and it's one of the best fertilizers I've ever seen. there is not a great deal of useful info on the net about them, aside from museums and such.
Being reptiles you would need a licence to own one, I've never gotten that far but I've had many scorpions(for a mean looking animal they are really timid) crappy pet...


mexican turtle invasion!!!
http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/asset ... poster.pdf

You can keep certain turtles in Vic without a permit but I don't think I'd want one in my AP system.

I think they can carry Salmonella and I defiantly don't want that in my system!

Is funny how this comes up now IMHO!
I was in Perth around Xmas and then went down south further soon after, went to visit an old friend around the Katanning area and after a few beers decided to grab the yabby nets and try one of the local winter rivers/summer pools for yabbies.
No yabbies were caught but ended up with one monstrous long neck tortiouse
(no joke it was HUGE) and one smaller one.
Only problem with these things is they stink real bad when first caught and will eat anything from fresh fish to rotten carrion.
Still, they look awesome but i would not have one or many in an aquaponic set up.

p.s. you need a licence here in WA to keep them.

I have done some research on the Turtles (apparently they are not tortoises) and found this at
http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblyg ... efault.htm

Turtle Recall

They suck up water through their bottoms, squirt foul smells and, despite their name, live happily in raw sewage. Australian freshwater turtles are tough, resilient creatures armed with a battery of defences which enable them to take drought, pollution and even car accidents in their very slow stride.

Yeah I think I will not introduce these to an aquaponics system even though the smell stops when they are happy in a new environment.

.

Lol they sound like Drillers...

What do they taste like?

I always thought the little ones that are sold in pet shops could be keep in a separate tank and used as an effective way to convert ALL kitchen scraps and the 'waste' part of the plants grown, directly into the nitrate cycle

but they don't stink if they are happy, prozac in the water mabye??? I wonder if the odour they produce would transfer into food in AP. wouldn't affect brussel sprouts much but I think you'd hesitate eating a tomato. When I started this post I wanted to find out if their excrement would be safe to use in AP. I think I'm going to have to get a turtle and grow a few herbs in a really small system to find out. because they are so resilient and they live for so long they might be good (if you keep them happy) just for growing plants. it was only a thought, maybe it would be good for growing plants that are smoked rather than eaten. not that I'd grow those but I'm sure a few people here have tried.

What, drillers?

Turtles.

The indonesians stealing them up north reckon they taste good

yey..........not

who'd want to eat turtles, I'd rather a nice cray platter or a few fillets of barra. besides I don't think it'd be legal to eat them. this idea of turtles in an AP system is more for a hydroponic aspect rather than aquaculture. and if you could breed the turtles you'd be in the money if you had a pet shop to sell them too. expensive little fookr's.

do we have any indigenous australians that know what they taste like? as far as I know aboriginies are the only people allowed to kill protected wildlife for food. turtle soup? anyone got a recipe?

does anyone have any recipes for indonesian's knockin off our turtles?