Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Fodder how big are your Barra ?

why I ask is that when I got my Barra in Oct they were only 25mm-35mm and would not feed at the surface at all only on sinking 2mm pellets and they had to be sinking once they settled on the bottom they would not eat them ether it wasnt till they were about 65mm-75mm that they would feed at the surface

I don't know why I am saying this but Don't FEED.
Or you will end up with a spike and very green water.

Hi Daryl,

Thanks for that info. its good to know that my fish are normal-ish.

Hi creative,

I have allready feed today i will test again tomorrow and see where we are.

My experience with barra is that they are fishes that do not like change, prefer sticking to a routine and are fussy...

Just cover (blackout) the whole tank with a tarp and do not keep changing their environment... every time you change their environment (ie. still a net in, add a shade cloth, etc), they will go off their food for a day at least... also unless they were bred in a aquarium environment, they do not appreciate you watching them... so stop lifting the cover to see them...

Based on your ammonia readings, it might be good to stop feeding totally for a few days... This also works in your favour, because when barra gets hungry they will start feeding and that is when you introduce your preferred feeding routine. Best to just leave the tank cover slightly and drop the food in... they will find the food in the dark... before you know it, they will be hammering at the surface the moment they see light from the cover being lifted by you... They will take floating pellets just fine...

And don't change anything from then.... do not be tempted to give them a treat of live feeder fishes, because it is likely that they will not want to eat pellets again until you starve them for a while and introduce them to pellets again....

Just a quick update.

All the levels are stable and the fish are feeding well, they even come to the top of the tank where i open it!!!!. They are feeding pretty hard at the crushed barra food also.
I think next time i crush some i will make the size a bit bigger as they are going for the bigger bits now.
Size estimate is about 40mm, they are quite visable and there seems to be still 30 of them.

CH
thanks to everyone and esp Rupertofoz for all his advise.

... glad to hear it's all on track Fodder...

go Fodder.

Thanks guys

The levels are some what stable at
amm .50
ph 7.2
rites 0.25
rates 5.0

fish are feeding quite hard. Also they all come over when i uncover the tank.

Plant growth is still slow but i have a REALLY small capcicum growning and some other plants that i am not sure what they are . The tomato seedings had small fruit on them out of the punet, but they seem to be just sitting there. dont seem to be growing or dieing.

So all is looking good. just gotta wait and watch the action!!!

CH

Hi Everybody!

Just quick report on the system up here.
I have just been away for two weeks on holidays and the system survived quite well.
I had a friend feeding the fish and he did a great job. We had two fish deaths for no apparent reason, i tested the Amm when i got home and it was the standard 0.25 and PH was 7.6. so no real reason.
The fish are growing quite well and the plant growth has probably more than doubled in the two weeks. VERY happy with that. I got a tomato plant that is a small tree!!!!
I have lost nearly half the tank in evap over the two weeks and the PH is 7.6 so i am going to have to add the water back SLOWLY to not stress the fish too much. 5 or 10lt per day from my aged and PH (of 7.2) corrected water (tap water up here is PH of 8.6) hopefully wont stress them too much.

I also dropped into BYAP head office in Perth and had a talk to Faye, Hi Faye , and had a look at all the setups. Man its cold down in Perth this time of the year! I was so happy to get back up to Karratha where its warm!!!

I will try and get a pic in tonight for you all.

Chris

Hi Chris
Isn't it nice to go away just so that you can notice the growth of the plants and garden when you come home.
Always nice to come home, especially when it is warm.

Hi Faye, thanks for taking the time with us the other day!

Here are the before and after PICs
before

after 2 weeks


Fish are doing really well. No more Deaths. eating hard.

Hi Guys and Girls,

The system is going along great guns.
There is HEAPS of growth and the fish seem to be happy. We had one mystery death, nothing seemed to be wrong, just dead.

I am still loosing a lot of water every fortnight, in the vacinity of 100l. The fish tank has the 90% shade cloth on to of it so that is probably not the culpert. I think the water level is too high in teh bed, i can see the water just from the top of the bed. It should be and inch or so below the surface of the bed. So that could be it.

But the most important question is going to sound stupid. I have several tomato plants in and they are huge, but the actual tomatos will not turn red. They are as big or bigger the ones you would get in the supermarket, but will not turn RED

Also the bed got raided buy the white moths and next thing i knew the tomatos and lettus are being devoured little green catapillers. (too late) so the fish ate a few but didnt liek them too much. I then did a bit of reading here and mixed up the garlic & chilli spray.
Honestly i dont know if it works, i am still finding the little green bugger in my tomatos!

I might try some dipol (i think thats it) and dust it on the leaves of everything.

Chris.

Hi Fodder,

Just reading through your posts and very inspiring!

Just reading the last one, what is Dipol? Not heard of that one, is it fish friendly?

Also if you are loosing a 100l a week, sounds like you might have a leak? That's a lot of water to be evaporating?

Love the photos showing the difference in 2 weeks, wish my system would grow like that! Hopefully over summer.

Dipel, a Yates/"Natures Way" product... is a fish safe, organically registered product... it's actually a bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis)...

The powder sachet is mixed with water and foliar sprayed onto the leaves...

The caterpillars ingest the bacteria... which dries them up internally.... within 24 hours...

Don't worry too much about the tomatoes Fodder, they will ripen up. I know sometimes they just seem to take forever to go red, but then suddenly when the do start ripening you will find that you get flooded with them.