Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does get me into a little trouble every now and then. Was only looking at the silvers and thinking I need another system for some more fish.

I've been fretting that the 320 or so fish that are left won't be enough to feed the family over the next year

With this input of barra, I should be up to about 300 ( maybe less ) in the system, though not all are growing at the same rate, as there are bolters........and some are runts

40 odd small cat fish, 5 larger eating size catfish, but they are great, 5 mangrove jacks, some grunters and yellow tail that can go threw the mincer anyday....only if I could catch them

How are the sick/battered Barra going Jessy.... coming good now?

The hatchery manager, thinks i might be feedig too much to get the great sizing i have ........

A mangrove jack is a bit sick, have to wait for him to slow down a bit more for me to catch him.....and he will be in a hospital tank...with formalin and seasalt and sea water and seasole..

Some Barra have the stress lines still, maybe 15 % and i am starting to think they will always be present

They got a good dose of Seasole this morning, see how that goes, then might add the sea water you suggested, its only a few minutes drive to get.....

I requested my Barra for 2 weeks time @ 60 mm minimum sizing........these small barra are hard work

And just ordered a third air pump from BYAP for the HSM that may happen with so many fish......they are my darlings ( along with the dogs and cats )

I don't get to eat any of the fish. They are pets.

I've got to look into backup air supply.

Me grrl friend is always hasseling me out when we get to eat the first fish The last BIG catfish i kulled I hated doing ...we didn't give him a far chance at survival, starting from the river we caught him in ...so put him in the fridge I thought for an easier death...

If you want help with that backup duff, pm me.

Hi All,

A quick up date.....things have been going fairly ordinary here...I have decided to get rid of the river fish that I first collected for the system...as there are too many variables with having so many species all together... I just have ordered another 400 barra . So this weekend i will be letting go of all the other fish and next week restock with the new stock of fish.

I will be adding formalin into the system prior to the fishes arrival, and will try to keep the tank salted to a minimum of 3 ppm.

Damn why do we have to learn these lessons the hard way but I did, yet again

I still have under 100 barra left from the original delivery 6 weeks back...but they aren't eating and seem slightly stressed........

not sure what to do ....so I am going with this plan of attack

Jess, whats your full set of water readings, max and min water temps daily, and feed type?

not sure about water temps but not under 22 oC, fo sure, parameters are all 0, pH 7.1 approx

Water temp swings between day and night can stress fish out quite a bit - I seem to recall your tank being above ground?

There does not seem to be another reason for the deaths + stress?

well mate, I could add to that.....playing with urea.....and then water parameters......children using them for traget practice.....big dogs using the sump as a mega water dish.......scaring the fish.....

aaah - was there a time when the fish were subject to high levels of ammonia or nitrite (nitrite is probably not the cause, due the the salt)? Fish that have had a high ammonia experience tend to struggle later.

Lesson hard learnt.........yep i done it