Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there,

As you can see, I am a newbie. I live in metro Perth region and from reading the various forum posts, there seems to be a variety of fishes that can be grown in here. It also seems that there are different fishes for different times of the year.

I would like to hear from a few people on their thoughts about the fishes to keep in this region, why those fishes and obviously also during what time of year what fishes should be kept.

It would be good also to know where I can source those fishes.

Thanks.

By the way, I should add that I am still in the midst of working out my BYAP kits. Will only probably get the kits installed earliest in late June/July.

I currrently have rainbow trout and silver perch, but started with goldfish and yabbbies.

Rainbow trout are HEAPS of fun to feed, but are seasonal (cold weather). SP just cruise along and haven't had any issues with going from summer through to winter. (yet).

Trout from troutman.
SP from various places, BYAP will be able to give you a list of suppliers,

Good luck.

I was just reading the forums and feel that I might have just missed the trout season once my system is setup. Hence was thinking about starting the system with Kois.

Where do you get yabbies from??

If you got your system up and running by early july, you would have 5 months minimum
to grow them out possibly 6 or 7 depending on your system

you can get yabbies at fish shops. (pet stores) i know my local one has heaps atm.

or from a yabbie grower, they will be cheaper

Or a bush dam

What is the deciding factor for being able to get to 6 or 7 months? Fish size? Temperature?

What is the recommended quantity of fishes for a beginner? 1000L tank and 2x 500L growbeds?
I hope to start small first. Not sure about keeping fishes yet, hence don't want to get a lot and kill all of them. Plus after setting up the system, I will need some time to read up on how to kill and clean the fishes.

Alternatively, I could just drop a line here for those living in metro south of river Perth for services wanted to kill and clean trouts in exchange to take home some of the kill.

Realistically you wont be able to get your first lot of trout to a huge size quickly in a brand new system - by trying to force feed you'll crash the bacteria.

Get it running, get it cycled, then see what time of year it is, and your water temps.

Well, yeah I thought that I might be pushing it for the trout season, hence why I was considering maybe kois to start off with.

Do you actually cycle the system without fishes to start with? How about the plants?

I was lucky I guess(new system), as I had heaps of pond gunk.
I chucked 150 trout in may 17/08, lost a few but grew some out to 400 g in about 3 months.
By december they were just under a kg.( considering I/we were eating the biggest ones
they could have grown on
But yes OBO is doing it right by suggesting getting the system up and running before
you decide what fish to go for.

Can someone shed some light on what is means by cycling the system? Or to get the system up and running? Without fishes?

It must be like childbirth!! You dont remember the stress at the time

Goldies are good starter fish.