Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has tried mixing different species of fingerlings in same FT.
Had an idea to mix silvers with catfish, purchased at the same time.
Will this work any thoughts?

I dont know about catfish's friendliness. Trout and Silver Perch get along ok as long as the Trout are well fed.

Barra dont play nice at all. Neither do Black Bream.

Hi obo,
Not sure either, can't grow trout here to hot

What, hotter than kalgoorlie?

A bloke I know who has a PhD in environmental science and specialises in aquatic environments did a study into aquaculture in the Mekong delta and found that monoculture ventures were far more productive and successful than polyculture set ups. No evidence as to why but it may be that on average it is hard to provide the ideal growth environment for each species therefore you end up compromising the production of one or more of the species.

This may relate to aquaponics, for example the fish food you are using may be beneficial to the growth of one species at the detriment of the other(s)

Trout and silvers do fine on the same food, I think the problem for us mostly relates to the seasonal difficulty.

While keeping the water cool for trout, it slows down silvers.

My big system is going to be mono. 1 tank for trout, 1 for silvers.

A couple of years ago I wrote on here that a vet friend of mine (who works in the aquaculture + aquaponics industry) suggested that keeping two seperate smaller systems as monoculture would be far more productive than one large polyculture system. Something to do with the intensive nature of fishtanks compared with a natural environment, and the effects of gut bacteria, water parameters and polutants etc etc... . He may be right that it is more productive, but there are plenty of people here that have succeeded with polyculture on some level. I have only been good for trout, but I dont know if that was because of the water temp being more suitable for trout, or if the trout somehow dirtied the water and the SP and catfish didn't like it.

Studies have shown that our catfish (punctatus) and tilapia together produce meat more efficiently per acre than either alone even though the yield of each fish is less efficient, so you may find that silvers and your cats are compatible if you feed them the same stuff.

As far as them attacking eachother, I would suggest putting some silvers and cats in an aquarium in the house for a week or two and see if they have trouble. Of course, one would need a decent filter etc....
Another option would be an aquarium with water pumped from and flowing back to the AP system. Not hard to cut a hole in glass and a 10-gallon (35 liter?) aquarium is pretty darned cheap, as would be a larger used one (especially one that leaks!).

I think Silvers and catfish should be fine...

I've got catfish and silvers and they seem to play nice.

Im assuming the catfish are just for growing purposes not for eating? What is the advantage to catfish in AP?

I still have 1 Catfish with 46 Silver Perch... no problems between species. (Started out with 50 Silvers and 2 Catfish - have lost 4 Silver Perch and 1 Catfish since stocking AP system with fish on May 20 2009). John at Glenwaters Native Fish advised that they should be fine together. Regards - ColinW

wanting to eat the catfish BB, I haven't had catfish since I was a little tacker and now they're protected in the Murray any way. Thanks for the feedback all, guess I'll have a go and see what happens.

You can eat them. Some people prefer them. Got a bad name due to no scales and the bible saying fish have to have scales.

Mine eat at the surface but they are good for keeping the floor of the tank clean.
Current load ish.
50 silvers 35cm+
50 catfish 30cm+( thick as your wrist ish)
130 small silvers
240 ish small catfish
Random goldfish up to 35cm+
1 lazy cod

They are a beautiful eating fish - firm white flesh with a pretty good flavour.