Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

feeders are just goldfish without coloration

Depending on the stock availability and offer, Aquotix (along Bannister Road Canningvale) do have feeder goldfishes. I bought mine 10 for $12... I got them initially to cycle my tank. After an ammonia level of 8 staying in a temporary aquarium and also a bit of neglect in an algae-ish tank, they are still alive.

I think fishes like trout and probably silver perch would have probably died quickly in those conditions. So yes, fishes like SP and trout are definately cheaper than goldfishes, but if you need to replace them because they died due to some issues, you would have paid for the goldfishes already.

Thanks Ivan I will cat aquatix tomorrow, they are right near work.

I dont mind killing goldfish, but I hate killing trout and Perch.

Yeah fair call OBO.
I am going to get some goldies tomorrow and see how they go.

Yeah me too. It's not that they're much cheaper, it's just that we're fishist bastards! They are more resilient though and that's a plus.

Just on the topic of sprinkling seeds randomly through your GB’s.
If you get a few sprouting to close to one another do you tend to move them? Or just leave them (within reason)?
Because I’ve seen some pretty crowded GB’s that seem to get some very healthy growth.
Is this because the plants aren’t really competing for nutrients like they would in soil?

PS: gold fish are tuff as nails. Once my snow peas were all eaten I left them there till it was time to throw in some seeds (waiting for the moon ) and I have 7 small goldies in there. I didn't feed them for 2 weeks because I ran out of food and thought I'd leave them to see how the system would cope. I didn't test the water but the fish were fine. The snow peas went a bit yellowish then I pulled them out. Just waiting now to see what sprouts from the seeds I dropped in

Taz, this is the first season I've seeded, and so far it's going well. I'm doing it because I find when I transplant things, I don't get the density that other do.
I believe that if you have enough nitrates to support the plants it doesn't matter how tight they are. Last season's plants in 2 GB could easily have been squished into 1/2 GB with no loss of growth (of course I would still need the other 1.5 gb for filtration...)
So I am sowing seeds this year in an attempt to get higher densities of plants.

I have put some goldies into my IBC today at lunchtime.
Tonight they seem ok but a few of them are swiming around with their heads up all the time.
I have an airpump running. Do you think this is a bad sign or am I being silly.
Do not like killing fish and after the last attemp am worried they will all die.

Heads up does not really mean anything, with a lack of air they are usually gulping at the surface. Whats your water readings?

KP - Some of my IBC's are planted at well over 2 times the density of the blue barrels, and growth is the same.

I think that perhaps more than 300mm of depth can be benificial for higher density plantings. These IBC's are seriously heavily planted

OBO, all the readings are zero, PH is 7.6, temp 18C.
I really hope they all survive the night !!!!

If they are at the surface and they are not currently feeding, then they need more air. It may be subtle signs of them near the surface that "looks like" they are looking for food slowly, but they are getting air. Add more air, and if they swim back down before long, then that did the trick.

So far so good with the new fish.
Still some swimming around with heads up but they seam happy enough.
I will see if they are interested in feeding tomorrow.

Still no deaths with the 10 Goldies, Water temp is only 17C so not interested in much food.
I have placed some duckweed in the tank in case they want a snack.
Managed to harvest some of the Spinach today and had a salad, it is very satisfying eating
food you have grown in the backyard.
Hope all the summer plants do well and I can enjoy more fresh healthy food !!!

After a week of having fish in the IBC I have lost 3.

hopefully the rest will keep going for a few more weeks.
I really want some silver perch. Hope Golden Ponds still has some by then?

Also today I noticed that all the spinach looks as though it has dried out.
Gone brown and crispy, allwater flowing correctly.

The only thing I have done is salted to 1ppt and added some seasol and iron.
Do you think I have added too many things at once?