Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I can testify to the effectiveness of fish in taking care of mozzie's.
When the power went out and all my indoor perch died my tank was left fallow except for 3 yabbies.

This was over the end of the summer and indoors. We kept waking up with mozzie bites and hearing them at night and seeing them everywhere.

I didn't even think to check the fish tank till well after i had come to the end of my patience. I lifter a large polystyrene box that i had used to cover one half of the tank and found not only half a dozen fully grown mozzies, but un countable number of larvae in the water!

This was probably the most that i have streched the bounds of my fiance's patients with my half cocked experiments

I immediatly went to the out door tank and netted a perch fingerling and popped him into the indoor tank. that was at about 4pm in the afternoon.

I checked the tank after work the next day. Gone. All Gone. NOTHING LEFT.

it must have been a feast for perchy

My fish are being fed duckweed. I still crush it in my fingers so that the small ones get a share. However I noticed that whole plant were being taken by the larger fish.

This week they started taking whole azolla ferns too!

So I guess they are growing somewhat!

What a diet! cheap flake food, duckweed, rabbit droppings, ground up pig food, azolla - the odd chopped worm from the worm farm!

food sure is a problem isnt it... what fish would go for duck weed? tilapia... this fish is comming up often, but in QLD you get HUGE fines for even having them in an indoor tank, so they are out.

AM,

Perch are omnivores, and make light work of duckweed

Now they I know are not banned .. and taste good, especially after a 24 hour purge... will look into it (might have to go harvest from the wild as everybody up here around Cairns only do Barra fingerlings)

AM,

Ausyfish in QLD ship silver jade and golden perch australia wide.

Warren and i are expecting an order tomorrow night. check out their website www.ausyfish.com

unfortunatly we got the last of their fish until about november december

Ta... hopefully I will have a smooth running system by the time they have more for sale again.

Just an update for people on the duckweed and azolla i put into my system.

I watched the inside tanks closely and the fish didn't seem too interested, i also had some shredded silverbeet in there.
Now, I feed quite often and heavily when i am at home.
When i return from work the fish are usually in a lather, splashing at the surface of the water, nearly jumping out (seriously). This afternoon was no different, except for the fact that there was no duckwwed, azolla or silverbeet left AT ALL. Seems like the fish act the same as my dog. They pick the bits that they like the best first, then when they are a little hungry the go for the other stuff

The tropical aquarium still has quite a bit, but this does not have nearly as many fish in it, and it has a good quality spectrum grow light, so i'm hoping that the duckweed and azolla will grow quick enough to form a self sustaining culture.

The outside system with the 5 perch and 5 goldies still has some left in it, but definatly less than this morning.

Apart from duckweed and azolla being a good replacement for other foods it seems like it might be a great little "help your self when you're hungry" type food for the fish. When you need to go away, just put in heaps, they will eat it when they want, it will also stay alive and grow more of itself.

Very cool if you ask me

sounds like a good idea - will continue to coddel my few plants into a mass as future food!

is there a difference between duckweed and azolla?

Very much so monya, would you ike me to post a few links that describe each one?

that would be great thanks steve.

Monya, enjoy

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plnov98.htm

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/1wayindx.htm

Check the pics on this link, Duckweed sandwich anyone?

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/genimg2.htm#gourmet

THanks for those steve... I knew there was a diff, but this info helps a lot, especially as I can grow duckweed in my tanks at home and school, but not azolla