Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got 50 bass fingerlings today, only little tackers, about 40-50mm in length. ANyway, just wondering if anyone has had any luck with bass before?

Apparently they are very aggressive feeders and have been described as the barra of the south. The ones I have have been weaned onto 1mm crumble so lets see how I go.

I didn't get my fish from these guys:

http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/bass.shtml

got them from Glenwater hatcheries but there is some good info on that site about bass, silvers and catfish.

Quachy

They eat a lot and grow slow.

http://www.nswaqua.com.au/information-aust-bass.html

"The Barramundi of the inland" are the Golden perch,, Also known as Callop.

good read there chappo

Hope I didn't come across as terse .....
Bass definately a beautiful fish to eat ,, so the slow growth may well be compensated by quality of end product.

This wonderfull www has a heap of good info ..... unfartunately you need to filter the crap out first:)

yeah I spoke to a guy at aquablue, and he was the one who told me that they were called barra of the south. he also said that the end result for both murrays and bass were worth the wait. 2yrs is what i'm thinking for both the cod and the bass, but the cod will still feed albeit slowly during winter and the bass apparently do the same.

so everything but trout in warm months and then they slow down or stop feeding in winter where the trout come in and play

quachy

if they eat alot and grow slowly , wouldnt they be good for someone who wanted to focus more on the fish poop ( for the plants ) than the fish ?

2 years ore more growout is what Im looking at for my silvers if they keep going as slow as they are , if bass eat more and poop more but grow at the same slow rate , then they'd be better than the perch Ive got ...

A 1kg Australian Bass.... is a big fish.... and probably 3+ years old...

yeah i'm kinda going for a mix of slow and fast fish growouts, silvers i see as med-slow, catfish slow-med, cod and bass as slow and trout as fast. that way, I will have a variety of fish over the year, but won't have any until march next year at the earliest and then this time next year. This way the fish poo should be pretty constant and a fair bit too for the plants.

1kg fish at 3yrs, so i'm thinking about 600-700g fish at 2ish years. Perfect for me!

600 - 700g in 2 years would mean around 300 - 400g in 1 year , thats perfect eating size for my small family

looks like Im gonna have to start looking for bass over here

they look pretty cool too! they have started feeding today and I will keep updating their progress.

the more reading I do, the more I find that their grow out rates are not to dissimilar to silver perch, so about 2 yrs to plate size (from fingerling size). Lets see how they go as I have silvers and bas at the same age in the same tank. If the bass are aggressive feeders then they SHOULD out grow the silvers. maybe, maybe not, can only give it a go and see.

quick update on the bass.

I have lost 6 bass through starvation - didn't take the crumble feed - but the rest are growing pretty well. Some of them have doubled in size and some have increased by 50%. They are getting fat bellies so eating well. Not as fast as the silvers who have gone from 2" to almost 5", but growing none the less. The 6 bass that didn't make it went into the cod system and very quickly disappeared! I have one cod in the system that has gone from about the 3-4" mark to close to 8". Can't catch the bugger for a photo though. Too dam fast! The other cod are catching up in size so they should be safe from being eaten.