Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

thanks for the compliment. means a lot coming from someone who obviously knows their stuff. there is a kind of sheen to them which i gather is the protective coat surrounding the fish. what do they call that again? memory escapes me. they're a beautiful fish.

there is a trick to using this net which is all in the motion. what i find works best is to move it really slowly through the water and let the fish swim into the net. then slowly lift the net without startling the fish. bring it up to the top then do a quick swipe to get them above the water. this way the fish don't get caught in between the rubber mesh. this results in minimal stress to the ones that go back in. i would describe it as landing the fish in the sorting area. thats what it feels like any how. this net is by far one of my best ap. investments.

here's the net again.

Mucus is the word for the protective coating they have on the scales, it is antibiotic and antifungus, that is why some fish get really sick if it has been scraped of them or absorb by a tissue. the best tool for handling fish is by wet hands.
Your technique is the one we use for fishing our fish on the farm prior to conditionning in boxes.
I've been fishing up to 6.5 ton in a night by hand that way and i can tell you it works. Sometimes it is even easier if you put the handle of the net on the side of the tank and bring it back towards you will bringing it up to the surface. It catches the fish all right but you won't need it his time but probably in a few years time as you seem to be going forwards a nice AP fish farm. I wish you the best.

The lines are there when they are young and over time disappear, but when the fish are stressed the line will appear again and stand out.

I don't know if it appears when the fish are at a huge size as I have not caught one of the biggies yet.

yeah they are stress lines if you ask me, I have three left and when I move them about they get the lines and then when relaxed the lines disappear.

Hey BF - wot did they taste like. Did you weight them? You are right that they don't look 500-700 grams in the photo.

thanks for the comments.

haven't eaten any yet. put them into my dechlorination IBC. beauty is that it makes and ideal purging tank.

will weigh them up and take more pics in a few days.

was one week the recommended purging time?

cheers

I reckon a week should be fine BF. Have you added any salt?

BF, we were told at college they were stress related. Maybe some are more nervous than others?

bf I found no benefit in purging for more than 3 days. At the end of day 1, there was heaps of solids, day 2 less, day 3 apmost none. Taste tests showed no noticable difference between fish harvested at the end of day 3 and at the end of day 6 or 7

thanks guys.

3 days sounds good to me as i'm keen to try them.

i haven't added any salt. i gather it improves flavor?

I added salt each time, but never very much. Would have to check back to the monya's barra thread to see how much.

there ya go, a purge for 2 days and no salt and they tasted fine.

Yeah but the bath tub had probably been "pre-salted" Monya

just put 2 large barra into an ice slurry. weighed them up and took pics as promised.

the largest was 700g even (1 pound 9 ounces ) and the second one was 588g.

this means that the smaller ones should all be around the 500g mark.

wooohooo man, that's a beautiful fish!

can you tell me, is there any fat in your fish, i'm asking in general for AP?
you know, like in the ones you buy on the market that are full of disstastefull fat
i'd really like to know, because my theory is that they should be more vital since we run continious flow, while the fish growers use a much slower flow me thinks. correct me if i'm wrong pls!

a really good day and good meal to you!