Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My brother-in-law cleans off any gamy taste in his fish and deer by placing the meet into an ice chest with ice and a lot of salt. All his meat taste really really good; no off flavors of any kind. Perhaps his post mortem purge could work too... Dunno... Once I get some fish to eating size I will try each method and compare.

Yeah, noticed that and was wondering how I missed the last 10 posts discussing that. ACK!

My nitrates were still well over 100 in the perch tank when I harvested and ate straight away the fish I spoke about in earlier post (when I had not been feeding the fish). This leads me to believe that the nitrates are not the main issue - but I may be wrong. This was afterall the first of the fish I ate - so I had nothing to compare with. I do however remember it being beautifull (eventhough I felt a little ill later on from eating too much and also being silly and not avoiding the fat).

hey all,

just wanted to put up a pic of my barra feeding.

since the disaster with the silvers i cut back feed on the barra. the water has cleared up a lot with less solids floating round. this may also be due to the fact that i increased aeration with the introduction of the backup air pumps.

they are looking beautiful. i'm very happy. knock on wood.

pic doesn't do them much justice as its been cold the last couple days.

anyhow you get the idea.

no worries with bubbles in there BF Nice looking fish too

that is way cool, what sizes are you estimating with the barra?

Thems are big barra - I know they were very big to start with, have they grown noticably BF?

they have grown very noticeably. not as much as the silvers did but i didn't feed them near as heavily. i pushed the silvers to the limit and paid the price. what i have noticed is that the barra have looked healthier and healthier the longer they have been in the tank. they have acclimatised beautify and seem to love their home. the water has matured like a fine wine. you can virtually see the goodness in the water.

as for size 500-800g come harvest is the aim. if i get 500g each i'm looking at 25kg all up.

does anyone know the standard whole fish price for barra? i'd say at least $20 a kg so 25kg would cost at least $500.

i paid $150 including delivery for 50 odd fish. spent another $60 on feed that should last until harvest. i would estimate i will spend and average of around $20 a month tops on electricity, which includes the aquarium heater. thats a total of $230.

so if i pull 25kg of fish come harvest i will have paid around $10 per kg tops.

i haven't factored in cost of setup though. don't want to think about it really. lol. nor have i factored in labor. having said this ap is a therapy i might have to pay for in another form. ie if i didn't have ap i might need to see a shrink for some meds.

then there are other health benefits such as those when the fish is consumed. i doubt there would be much healthier food. exept for maybe the fruit and veg grown in the setup.

anyhow enough rant. you get the point.

and a good point it is, Nice fish!
Update your new digs Monya?

hey all,

added 100 large silver perch last night.

3 of them didn't make the trip but were large enough to get a decent meal.

it was by far the best fish i have not only tasted but felt melting in my mouth.

now i know why people say silvers are better then barra. having said this i haven't tried fresh barra. these silvers were as fresh as you can get. not sure when they were last fed but no off flavours at all.

i can't wait to get these silvers up to the 500g mark. knock on wood.

Barra are estimated at 9 $au a kilo when they plan recirc systems.
But what you haven't counted in the calcs is the price of the veggies, which will give around twice the quantity as fish.
50 kg veggies + 25 kg of fish makes a very good bargain
Good life is priceless so everything that tends that way should also be the same

Love the big furry toe as a reference BF

That looks yummy!

Looks like your going to have to fight the cat of to get your fish. :lol;

just added 1 more growbed to each of the barra tanks. just in time too with the barra getting large.