Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been lurking here for a few months getting the flavour of aquaponics and have decided to have a go.
The obvious question that comes up is where to source food and just how much do you need. I noticed from a few other posts folks talking about 2% of the weight of the fish a day ... but... how much do fingerlings weigh ? and how do you weigh fish without unnecessarily disturbing them ?

So on topic - Where do folks in Sydney source their fish food ? and what's it cost ?

Hi reg. Feeding is dependant on temperature and weight of your fish. I have a table somewhere that I will put up for you when I find it.
Broadly, with littlies at temps under 15C, a soup spoon per 100 fish, 3-4 times/week is fine.
As the water warms and they are growing, give them as much as they will eat. I fed mine over summer once of a morning, then repeatedly over an hour at night. It worked for me within my work hours. If u miss a day here and there it won't matter.
Don't feed after ur final pump cycle of the day, the ammo caused by their respiration will not have a chance to get out to the grow beds.
Rupe may have some contacts re: perch food.

200 5-10cm silver perch have eaten ~500 grams of food / 2 weeks

Welcome regattadj! Another Sydney-sider - way cool! (There are not many of us.)

Where abouts in Sydney are you located?

I got my SP food from http://www.grobest.com.au

scottie ,, think QUALITY not Quantity:)

The select brand perch feed did really well in some trials ,, still waiting for them to give me price and minimum quantities.

Will update.

Not with you on that one Chappo, are you saying Grobest is inferior???

The 3 main pellets that I know of is:
Ridleys, Grobest and an organic pellet that is just starting up, there is a write up here on it:
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 445#102445

I buy Grobest and it comes in 15kg bags (minimum order 1 bag), price is between $40 - $50/bag
smaller pellet size (2mm) costs more - I pick up tho

I think Chappo was referring to the quality of Sydney APers.

But when I initially read his post I had the same confusion too.

Aaaahhhh !!!- the penny drops

scottie ,


I'm deep in suburbia - Rydalmere .

So getting it from growbest means contacting them in Queensland ?


Folks,

The quantities you are all talking is much less than I was fearing , it was all starting to look hideously expensive (unless you live in Brisbane :-)

Hi regattadj,



Woohoo! An APer that is actually pretty close! I was starting to get lonely in this crowd of non-AP people.

I work in Marsfield, only a couple of kilometres away.



Yup. But as you're so close I can sell you a portion of my 4mm pellets at cost, if you're interested. My fishies are only small & so don't eat much - there's plenty.

I'm not sure what size your fishies are. For me, the 4mm pellets are too big at the moment so I have to crush them up.

Yup.. good question... how many fish do you have regattadj, (welcome, by the way)....

And how long have you had them... approx size now????

Spent a few years at Dundas, so was just down the road from ya

My weekly feed got up to 1kg, but I have a few SP ready to be remove for eating purposes plus temps starting to drop, will cause the amount to drop (100 SP ~100mm and 20 SP 300mm )

Sharing a bag of food is what us Qlders are slowly getting in to, definitely keeps the pellets fresher

when I said I decided to have a go I wasn't kidding. Have a couple water tanks that I have seeded with a few goldfish to get the "cycle" started. Am waiting on both the final setup (or is that interim) to arrive - getting one of Murray's balcony kits and have 100 Silver Perch fingerlings due in any day which I will probably split with my brother who lives out Windsor way. Spent the long weekend digging out and leveling the "farm" area to place the tanks and growbeds.
My thinking was to use the water and media from the "seeded" tanks to fill up the kit and go from there.

Scottie ,
more than happy to explore sharing pellets as my initial ask around feed stock suppliers where I get my chook food got a few blank looks and a "you sure you are not getting koi ?" type questions.

Ask Murray for some pellets.... I'm sure he'd make up a small bag for you....

Take it that you are getting fingerlings then.... so you'll need a crumble to start with...

Edited :



Whoooa .... those balcony kits are based around a 800ltr tank if memory serves me right... and a 250ltr growbed...

50 fish will be too much as they grow without at least another growbed, probably two... IMHO

Ah , always important to mention the little details .. .yep ordered with the 3 beds so 750lt growbed capacity.and just happened to have had just a little too much gravel delivered for the leveling I did , so can always fall back on additional capacity on both fish and growbeds just wont be neat and tidy (which was a large part of the family convincing factor).