Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

These ones were from the uni, they're all over Vic! People introduce them everywhere because they're hardy and tasty! There's no size/bag limit on them, so you can go nuts.

Not only can you go nuts but they are a "noxious" fish species which means that you arn't allowed to return them to the water. In NSW there are fines for doing so I think it is now the same in Vic or if not soon will be.

IF the legislation has been ammended then I'm pretty sure its illegal to keep them in a tank/pond as well.

Yep, we're all well aware of the fascists trying to keep us down man! It's our native species fault for being so fragile I mean we've got what, 8 out of 10 of the worlds most deadliest spiders and snakes etc, but you introduce one foreign species into the water, and all the fish cark it! Why couldn't we get tough arse fish for our natives!

With all the GM going on just give it time.............

my suggestion list:

Blue ringed perch
Tipania
redtrout
and................silverdeath

Redfin in a small dam will tend to stunt out in growth, i.e. lots of smaller fish (plate size), rather than a few large ones.


I think they taste alright

Hahaha, amen to that!

Mr Scientist: Sure, their DNA structure was taken completely from Australian natives, we just took the best parts of different animals and whacked it together, just like god did with the platypus.

And now I have 20

p.s. Scuse the photo! All the other's are perfect, but the camera decided my fingers were more worthy of focus than what was in the centre of frame!

What are you feeding them Kenour.... will they take a pellet?

If they don't, they die

I put about 100 feeder fish in there with them, so hopefully they'll do until they start taking pellets, most are quite young, 3 of them are hand size, but the rest of them are fingerlings. So yeah, hopefully they learn quick that the pellets are the only form of food around

I'm not going with trout this winter, so thought I would whack these buggers in to get the nutrients up, just concentrating on strong plant growth at the moment.

Sweet grab, Redfin are such an awesome looking fish.

How'd ya catch them, with that Net?

Last day of testing and things seem to be going well, pH is still high, I'll do weekly tests from now on and see if it's dropping or not.

So it seems the good old urea dosing worked, I got my nitrite spike, and now things are looking like they should, so happy days



Yeah mate! Still want to grab some more though

He he, you'll probably find that the fingerling redfin will get eaten by the hadnsize ones. I've gutted redfin that had redfin inside them that were only shorter by a tail and a half (the small fishes tail).

hahaha for sure, when the water clears I'm half expecting to find one big guilty looking redfin! There's some goldfish and heaps of feeder fish in there also, hopefully they take them before eating their own!

I've decided to keep testing for another week (it's become a habit now!) Just to see what the introduction of the 20 reddies do to the levels. I'll try and keep the nitrate around 20-40, but expecting a drop when the seedlings get bigger. I'll just keep 'topping up' with reddies I guess! Hopefully grab another lot this weekend from a different spot. The pH is still a bit high, due to the water still being quite green according to my uncle. Hmm, maybe I'm not doing myself any favours by keeping the nitrate's high. He said the bacteria in the beds will out complete the algae for nutrients, but if I keep the water nitrate rich the pesky algae may not get starved... Ahh well, I'll see what happens I want to see what the reddies are getting up to! All I can see is the feeder fish on the surface, and a flash of red every now and again when one of the big fish jumps out of the water (not sure if it's a comet running away from a reddie, or a reddie taking a feeder fish, but it's exciting ).

I've planted a bit of stuff, and it seems to be doing well, the corn is going pretty nuts as is the lettuce and rhubarb. Zucchini's are looking good, not too sure about spacing, so expecting to learn a lot from my first crop I've got netting over it as you can see, to keep my ducks and wild birds off until the seedlings are more established. Even then if I uncover it the ducks will destroy the lettuce straight away. Still looking for a permanent cover, thinking half green house half netting at the moment, or might just whack a greenhouse over the whole thing... depends how lazy I am! I've been looking for greenhouse solutions, but looks like building it myself is the best option! As anything in kit for that's 8mx4m is about $3-5k, which is a joke! (If you know of anything cheaper let me know! Whack a post in HERE.)

So that's is, water is cycled, plants are doing well, netting is up... now I'm bored I think I might add 4 more growbeds...

Sounds like your having a heap of fun!

What liner did you use for your tank? and where from? just plotting a new system down the track.