Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

don't really think so nigel, I think the same scenerio, I have six yabbies (I think) and one mother koonac and I think they are cleaning up after the reddies, maybe they only eat and take what there body needs and throw up the rest must admit haven't seen any crap in tank, maybe they don't have a pooper valve not much info on the net about them, but isn't much use having vomit all over tank

Wow, went and got some Gambusia last night and put them in with reddies, normally the reddies just swim around the bottom and do sweet fa other than eat mince and throw it back up, put in the Gam's and wow, they fed like trout literally, jumping out of the water and in a frenzy, the gams were jumping trying to get away, was amazing, no time this morning to see what's left or if they spewed them out but will see at lunch time, I let about 400 Gam's go and after about 30 minutes well over half were gone, I have about 15 reddies less than 100mm long, *frack* ing amazing

Mate, you'll have to video it - sounds great.

We put some in with a mate's 10cm barra stock and the barra are very cool and laid back hunters. Their attention fixes on the gambusia as soon as they're in. They then either sit back and wait for the gambusia to swim close enough and then VOOM, they jump forward, mouth open and gills flared, swallow it and just sit still - all in the space of a second. Or, they slowly idle towards them until cloase enough for the above to take place.

Nige any news from the translocation of the said things

hahahahaha... Yeah it's ok when you have a cheap or almost free supply of small fish.

I was doing that with goldfish and barra, great watching the bigger fish demolish them in seconds flat with nothing but a puff of scales left behind...... Till I realized that some of the goldies I'd paid 3-4 bucks for and here I was using them as live feed....

well I reckon I put at least 400-500 of Gam's in last night and at lunch today about 3 bigger ones left checked other tank to see if any got through and none, was a few floaters with bites in about 20 and maybe another 20 mashed on tank bottom so maybe a bit of cleaning but a good food source, can't put yabbies in tank unless I get some bigger ones that reddies possibly wont eat so will have to scoop dead remains out, I am amazed on how many the reddies ate

No vomited ones?

hard to say EB haven't examined them closely enough but tank is crystal clear and they looked more half chewed than vomit and not that many compared to what they ate, I think after the main feeding frenzy they just toyed with them, maybe put less in and see what happens, was hoping that the lot I put in would have lasted a week or at least until the weekend, but is only 10 k's to get more and will have to organize more work trips, problem is GWH expects beer drinking to start when I turn up

Well, it is going to be hot

The beer drinking started when we turned up

Ammonia is up to 1 and I feel mainly because of the half chewed Gam's, may also be causing a couple of yabbie deaths, I think they are going to be messy, need some bigger yabbie's to clean up the leftovers

I'm guessing the rise in Ammonia is caused by all the beer drinking going on down there this weekend... You have both been peeing in the tank haven;t you?

I thought it was a big blue toilet

These *frack* ers are weird, tried them on mince at lunch and they were fighting for it and no spewing, I think they play with food when full so rations is the go, I haven't fed them since CD left and only gave them a bit of mince, one gulped a bigger bit and spat it up then a fight for it, before they spat it and left it and waited for more

well no floating meat today, I think definitely if you throw in 500 Gambusia for 10 fish they will destroy the lot in a few hours and make a big mess as they did, if you throw in 20 at a time they will just eat them, same with mince just feed them enough or they will play with it and spit it out, I don't really won't to set up a Gambusia tank so rationed mince will do for now, see how they grow in the next 2 monyhs

feeding mince again last night and put in a couple of bigger bits which they ate on the way down, soon as it hit the bottom they left it, then gave them some smaller bits and they ate it, appears when it settles they are not interested, when mince hits the water they will swim up and get it and munch it on the way down, try throwing a floating pellet they don't move, I thought they would eat the bits that hit the bottom later on but it was floating this morning, I am thinking that they may think the meat sinking is live and this is what fires them up and lose interest when it stops moving, more investigation needed