Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I'm just a virgin at aquaponics/culture, I have a big double house block in South Western Australia, house on one block, thinking about a small marron farm, just 6 females and a coupla males, want to grow a small feed yearly and sell of the babies, a few mates have suggested 2 small 1000 lt tanks and separate females after mating, is a good market for fingerling's here, but I had in mind a 4.5mt round tank around 1 mt with a 100mm raised thin mesh floor so babies can fall to the bottom and biggies up top, I have plenty of garden stone and terracotta piping to build hides with, anyone have any suggestions about small scale farming, not much info on the net. I am thinking to maybe go with my grand plan and see what the outcome will be, but must be some one in cyberland that has a small scale operation. What are the licence requirements in West Oz,
Cheers
Nocky
http://members.dodo.com.au/pnock

as i understand it, but could be wrong, you need a licence to catch wild marron, and a licence to transport marron, but not to breed or keep them.
I assume you would need to show you had a licence to get the marron to your place to begin with.

I like the mesh idea. What about several layers of mesh so that they can go up, but not down.

I am planning a 1000lt marron sump, and was thinking of using offcuts of pvc pipe to fill the tank. small diameter at the bottom, getting larger towards the top. i hope the eggs will fall all the way to the bottom, and the little ones will live in the small pipe at the bottom, as they grow they will have to move up the tank to larger pipe. the biggest will be on the top for harvest

I think you might have problems with your mesh idea, mainly that marron like to be in deep water and wont leave the bottom, and if they do they will stop growing in the middle layers. too big to go down, not big enough to eat.

I not concerned about stocking and transporting, but selling fingerlngs and what license is required, bur will contact fisheries WA, but Tim I am more to making the marron think they are living on the bottom, option 2 would be still a raised floor of about 100mm, but not meshed, transfer females to bottom layer until they drop eggs and then put them back up top, would only have around 3/4's top floor so could still access bottom area with a net, obviously conditions not ideal as a dam, but most baby stock will be moved to a mates dam or sold off, only a few would be kept at home, my plan would be to cook the females after one season and bring up new females from the bottom. and after a couple of seasons swap the males as well, big feeds not expected from home farm, just a few nice feeds, but we can get about $1 a baby so 3 -4000 a year plus a nice feed is not un-realistic, whats the thoughts?, I think for around $1500 I could set up a 4.5 x 1.2mt tank, poly tank cost is $950 plus other stuff should have a couple of cartons change,

Tim they don't have to be deep, some dams and rivers almost dry out, and still produce good marron after rains, marron don't tend to bury like yabbies, koonaks but still survive, they will try and move if not happy, but I suppose i n this situation we are forcing them to stay

i agree with Tim, they seem to like to be under something, but i also agree with Nocky the water depth is not critical. I think the mesh idea has merit. i dunno what size mesh you would need to separate the old from young

This may help your licence query
I also love Beer and Marron, and I own a Ford though I don't love it

They do like to be under something, but have plenty of river stone and small terracotta piping, I am going to go with a 100mm raised floor covering around 3/4 of the tank, i am slightly leaning to a closed floor and putting the females down the bottom until they drop eggs and then put them back up top, i will have hides down bottom as well, mesh i would think would need to be a 1/4" squares but marron may not be happy walking on mesh, still lookung for opinions, but I think the split level will work?

Whats the thread with the mulitple layers of shade cloth to increase the surface area for yabbies and the like?

i've got a tank smaller than my grand plan, but will try the idea on smaller scale, am going split level with modifications, got tank free, pump $95, mesh $50 and my time 1 carton, am going to set up over easter weekend, so will post progress reports, but can't see failure on getting 1 good feed a year from tank setup, selling fingerlings, and another good feed from mates dam

Be interesting to see how you go Nocky. I think you main problem may be with the water getting to warm in the tanks in the summer as although Marron dont need deep water to live in it does provide them with a cooler refuge to escape from the heat. Check out Simmo's system as I am pretty sure he lost his marron when the water heated up over summer.
The other thing is to make a go of selling the juveniles you are going to have to have plenty of them given that your licence is going to cost you over $400 per yr and the price per juvenile is usually around 30c each.

I think I will have the heat thing under control with plants outside tank, fountain and is under a shade cloth area, $400 a year is steep, thanks for info as fisheries WA are still getting back to me on this one, have heard that the juviniles sell for $30/100, but people here pay up to a dollar each

Have moved to Fish section of Forum will post updates, pics and the grand plan under marron thread their,You will find it here