Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I just rang the supplier of the barra. If we don't pick them up this week he is going to on sell them to someone else. The fish are currently run at ambient temperature of 18degrees. He seems to think they will be okay. there doesn't seem to be many more options. I have rang the other suppliers and there is only 10 big barra left at golden ponds (a week ago). My only other option is to get silver perch....but I really want to try barra. I am feeling very pressured into getting the barra a few weeks earlier than I would like.

Yesterday we harvested the trout. We ended up catching 46 fish with an average weight of 288grams. The biggest was 380grams and the smallest was 158grams. They were reasonably uniform in size. This morning after the water had cleared I think there is still around five fish left in the tank. They are extremely hard to catch. One fish was tiny so we put it into the sump tank as we didn't think it was big enough to eat. This morning it was dead on the bottom of the yabby tank and had been half eaten. I was surprised the yabbies killed a trout....I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.

Water tests today ph 7 - 7.2
amm - .25
nitrite - trace
nitrate - 40 -80
the plants are really starting to increase their growth. Lots of the seeds I planted are finally at seedlling size. Water temp this morning was 21degrees. How should I transition the barra into their new tank? I know how to do it when they come in a plastic bag but these will be free in a container. Do I just add a bit of the system water into the container over a period of time and then empty them all into the tank?

Maybe you've got some freakishly monster yabbies lurking in there

mmmmmmmm freakishly tasty..

That's what I'd do: gradually equalize temp and chemistry, then gently dump 'em in.

On Thursday I added 70 barra to my tank. The averages size of them was 330grams. They were supposed to be 200grams but they underestimated the size. The barra are bigger than I would have liked to get. We lost one fish on the first day. It jumped out of the transport container and one of my children tipped sunscreen onto it so it would not get sunburnt I didn't want to add it back to the tank incase the sunscreen affected the rest of the fish. I have added two 500w heaters, one 250w heaters and a coil of black poly to try and increase the temperature. I am getting overnight temperatures of around 20 degrees. The fish love sitting under the heaters. Hopefully it will heat up this week so I wont need the heaters any more. The fish are not interested in eating and around 60% are showing a line of white across the top which I have been told is the 'stress line'. The water parameters are perfect
temp 22
am 0
rite 0
rate 80+
ph 7 - 7.2
The tank is exceptionally clear and clean. You can see right down to the bottom and there is no fish 'muck' at the bottom at all. Hopefully the barra will start feeling better and eat something soon. I put 3kg of salt into the tank this afternoon....I'll see if that makes a difference.

The barra seem to have settled in well. Today they were interested in feeding. They feed so differently to the trout. My water temp today was 26degrees with only the black poly pipe heater. I have left the electric heater off tonight and will see what the temp is in the morn. I will be surprised if it is below 20.

does anyone know the feeding rate for barra? I have 70 fish at around 330grams. How much should I be feeding them? Is it 1% of bodyweight...like trout?

My temperature this morning was 20degrees. I don't think I will have to worry about the electric heaters any more. Temp by 2pm was 26 degrees. the black poly pipe heater works a charm. I think I will hook one up to the kids paddle pool. Nice warm water

The barra are happy to eat...one cup fed today. Caterpillars are ruining the vegies, I'll have to get dipel onto them. Today I harvested the last of the brocoli plants...they performed fantastically over the winter. The broad beans are going great, I am harvesting a bowl full every few days. I have been blanching them and freezing them. I am thinking of getting a vacumn sealer machine.

The snow peas have been disappointing. What sort of lettuce are people having success with in Perth? I have planted a lot more seeds. My last lot of seeds have basically rotted, or been eaten by something. I am thinking of getting a seed tray to raise them to seedlling stage before transplanting. I am finding that too much time is being wasted waiting for them to get to a certain size. The plants all seem to be covered with very small black flying insects...no idea what they are. They don't seem to be eating them. I'll have to keep my eye on them and see what happens.

I think the small black flying insects could be aphids... They come in black, greenish and white colour... I don't think they are good for young plants... I have aphids and caterpillar problem as well and my young seedlings seem to appear and then die off after a while... Only thing they don't seem to affect are the carrot leaves and corn leaves (at the moment) ... I am going to try some companion planting in hope of attracting some beneficial bugs to get rid of these pests...

That will benefit the whole garden

I thought I would do a quick update. The barra transitioned to the tank with no dramas. I ended up heating the tank during the night for about two weeks. After that the temperature was okay. I have had a lot of trouble with planting seeds in the system. I seem to have planted a lot of seeds and very few have germinated. I got a plastic tray with individual compartments and burried it in a growbed. I planted approximately 50 seeds of different types to see what would happen. Out of 50 seeds I only had around 5 germinate. I don't know why they are not growing. I think the seed is viable. I even brought a few new packets of seed to see if there was something wrong with my ones. I didn't notice any difference between new seeds and old ones ( around 6 mths old - stored in a air tight container in a cupboard).

I found I had a few weeks with very little plant growth. The level of nitrates went off the chart. In the last month the plants have taken off. I have tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, herbs, capsicium, carrots, zucchini, and other plants in at the moment.

A few weeks ago I had a caterpillar problem. I tried dipel for the first time and that sorted it out. At the moment I have something eating my tomatoes, leaves and my bean leaves. I can't seem to find what is causing the damage. The damage is not extensive, I will still get a good harvest.

The only problem with the system is the clarity of the water. For the last few weeks the water has been very murky. I am unable to see the bottom of the tank. Around three weeks ago I accidentally left the hose in the system for most of the day. A VERY big water change . After that the water stayed crystal clear for a few days then went back murky. In the last few weeks I have added a lot of ecorose to buffer up the ph.

I also brought a 70 l/min air pump from guppies and have added it to the tank.

I have been feeding the barra around 2 cups of food a day (70 fish around 330g in October). I find it really difficult to know how much to feed them. I sprinkle around a 1/4cup of food on the surface of the water. I find the food sinks so quickly that it hits the bottom before it can all be eaten. I have seen some fish food on the bottom around the pump. Now I can't see the bottom to see if there is any uneaten food.

This morning I did some water tests
ph 6.4
ammonia - .5
nitrite - 1
nitrate 20 - 40
I found a dead yabby in the sump. I also did a few scrapes of the bottom of the fish tank and got around 1/4 cup of old fish food that smelt.

I did not feed the fish at all today and put the pump on continuously. When I tested the nitrite levels in the afternoon the level had gone back to just a trace. I have covered my tanks.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do now? How long does it usually take for the water to go clear again? Is two cups of food too much? The bacteria is obviously working well as the level of nitrite went back to nearly 0 after just a few hours. Any help is appreciated.

Two cups is obviously to much.. as they aren't eating it...

How many times a day do you feed??

Id suggest cutting it to 1 cup a day for a few days... and feeding at least 2 times a day... (half a cup each time)... and then trying another half cup a few hours later... after the water has cleared a bit...

I've got 300 Barra... about 100-150mm... feeding six times a day... a handful (about 70-80gms) each time... and there isn't any that even gets close to the bottom...

I have been feeding them around four times a day. I have been sprinkling in a bit and wait and watch the fish eat it. As soon as they stop eating it. I stop giving them food. I find even on the first 'sprinkle' some of the food hits the bottom. They just don't seem to get it all in time. Even when I only put around a tablespoon of food in at a time some of it gets to the bottom. I think they are still fairly shy feeders. When the water was clearer it appeared that after a certain amount of time the fish would eat the foodt from the bottom.

A cup holds around 140grams. So I am feeding roughly 280grams a day. the fish are around 30 cm long. Some days I don't feed them 2 cups...it just depends if they are eating it or not. In the last few weeks it has been harder to judge because I can't see the fish to see if they are eating all of the food. I'll cut back to 1 cup for a few days and see what happens.

How long does it usually take for the water to go clear?

I have also found that the barras in my tank also like to feed on small meals often rather than one or two large ones... I found some uneaten food at the bottom about a week ago, hence I tried to make sure that I feed them gradually, dropping only a small handful each time once I can see that they have finished the earlier handful... if they stop or have not finished, I leave and come back to feed again later... Troublesome...

I also found that they prefer to feed when the pump is not running and when there is minimum splashes of water on the surface... In short, when the growbeds are almost fully drained back into the tank and the water level is high in the tank. Fussy fishes mine are...

They certainly take a lot longer to feed than trout!

After a few days with no food the water looks really clear. The fish were not hungry yesterday....but they made up for it today. I have only fed them one cup today and will see what happens. I will cut down on the feeding from now on. I was thinking that I wasn't feeding them enough Thanks for everyone's advice.

The tomatoes are really powering along. I think I had better find a good tomato sauce recipe in the next few days.