Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

all is well in fingerling land this morning. The siphon continued o'night no worries. Clear water and hungry fishies this morning. All good.
Been purging 2 silvers all week for a bbq 2moro. They are about 350grams each, from my original batch bought April last year. (Can't believe I bought silvers in April.) Lot has happened for us all this past 12 months.
It is exactly a year since I found the forum so appropriate to mark the time with the first fish. Gunna net them into an ice slurry, gut them, add bits n pieces and do them in foil. Can almost taste them.

Mmmm!

Happy anniversary Tragic
Can you imagine life without AP?
I bet you never thought it would dominate your life as much as it has
Good eating.

Cheers David. It has been a pretty amazing year for life in general and AP especially. Hope things are well with you, let you know when the pellets arrive.

Don't forget to knock them on the head before gutting them, the ice slurry doesn't kill the nerves and is supposed to be painfull for the fish even if they are asleep.
It is recommended in the organic fish farming process.
I'll try to get to the silver spawn and hatchery stuff soon, sorry but life has been going a bit to fast these last weeks.
Bon appetit and what wine are you going to taste with them?
I'd say a nice chardonnay, little acidic, a bit old and thick (leaves traces on the glass, don't know the english wine words sorry) and fruity would be nice with a white fleshed fish, don't you think.
Don't forget to dry the left overs (head, guts and bones) it will do a good phosphorus source for fruiting plants if you grind it up and sprinkle it on the GB. No wastes...
Hva

I'm having trouble with my computer, would somebody please delete the previous doubled posts?
Thank you and sorry TT for this

cheers Amacafish

Well an historic day!
Finished up netting four fish, one at 200 grams one at 300 and two at 350 grams. The three larger ones were all males as they expressed milt when I squeezed their bellies.

I have pics but having trouble loading them 2nite.
Each had some stomach fatty deposit but not much.
Filled them with AP tommies and AP greek basil.
Bit of butter, then done on the bbq in foil in less than 10 minutes.
They tasted very fresh and not at all muddy. I had simply not fed them for a week, leaving them in their existing tank to purge. (It is the first sump that gets the return water.)

Lovely firm white flesh, easy to peel away from the big bones that silvers have. Also easy to separate from the thick silver perch skin. Really good eating. Don't think I will bother buying fish again if this is how purged home grown fish taste.

Reckon I will let my next lot grow out to 400 grams just to get a bit more fillet to eat. If i can keep my babies eating thru winter we will have fish a plenty at that size easter next year.

Very nice TT.... but no pics ...

still having probs getting the pics from the camera to the comp.

Hi TT,
Hope the silvers are doing well, my 51 have turned out to be very hardy, roaring round the tank like there is no tomorrow, (one day that will become a reality).
Now, feeding. How much do you give these little chaps?. I have found that 2 teaspoons a day raises the ph to 8, so thats too much yesterday no feed and a cup of vinegar have lowered it to 6.6, thats a bit low. Gave them 1 teaspoonful today.
Is there a formula, or just suck it and see?
cheers
Rodney

350g eh! mmmm... might have to net acouple of my silvers to see how they compare, the comp is still on I presume, not to late to pull out TT.....I have had mine on a 'special diet you know.

Oh yeah, not sure if you realised but we got our first and second batches at the same time! .....only yours were half grown out when you got them while mine were tadpoles (just incase you win)

and here's me thinking I had snuck the win, Worms. Yes, indeed, mine were from the original batch purchased in early April last year. I managed to kill half of them thru lack of knowledge mid winter including 3-4 of the largest.
The remainder haven't been religiously force fed or anything and are growing steadily. Can't remember how long u have had urs for, but perhaps time to net a couple and weigh them.


Notable, feeding will cause a decrease in pH not an increase. Fish respire CO2 and this is exacerbated at feeding when fish activity is greater. Look for another cause.
I feed my fish as much as they will eat over several times a day. Usually in the morning b4 going to work and a couple of times at night after work, b4 dark. Give them small quantities often and re-feed if their food disappears in 5-10 minutes. When there is food left after 15 minutes or so, net it out and dump it to the chooks, the fish are full.
I try and feed them just b4 the pump return cycle starts. This is bc feeding reduces oxygen in the water. If the return pump kicks in at the end of feeding, it helps to restore that depleted oxygen.
Be careful bumping pH around. Fish need a stable pH to help maintain a healthy equilibrium.
We need to make hay now growth wise. Cooler conditions are on the way and they will eat/grow less. I might use a couple aquarium heaters to warm the water and keep them growing over winter. See how we go.
Hope this helps.

TT you have the similar water volume to Steem's system, housed in a similar shed and with a similar greenhouse. It took one kilowatt of aquarium heaters just to keep my temps at 15 - 16 degrees in the coldest months prior to barra harvest. Just food for thought, I personally think it would be more efficient to spend the money on some insulation for the shed and an air pump (if you don't already have one) and turn the cycling off overnight to preserve daytime water temps.

and as your feeding rates will be reduced significantly, ammonia spikes shouldn't be a huge problem. Depends on your stocking densities though....