Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does this make a difference?

Reason I ask, is I was not all that impressed with the taste of the Barra last year. Also, I remember being on my honeymoon ( a while ago now) at Karri Valley, where I caught some trout from the lake, and also some from the ponds. There was no comparison in flavour; the lake trout was beautiful.

So, apart from the comments about being able to sneek a fishing rod into the car for the honeymoon, I have been feeding my trout bait, basically whitebait and prawns for the last couple of weeks.

Leats see if it makes a difference?

Has anyone else tried this?


Cheers
Wazza

Let us know Wazza... but I don't quite follow you...

What have whitebait and prawn have to do with lake trout???

You are what you eat...

The lake trout had a varied diet, insects, other fish, small marron etc etc, the pond trout were pallet fed.

One was beautiful, the other not so much. My Barra were not so great, especially compared to Barra I have caught in the wild, so I am hoping the change of diet for the trout will have a positive effect on the taste.

Get what I mean?

Take an example from nature - Bald chin Groper (or blue bone) v's Buff brim (or sh!tty Brim).

One lives of mainly crabs, the other a type of seaweed. One is I think the nicest fish in the ocean, the other I wouldn't feed to my dog, even if he had just chewed on the shaft of my golf driver.

I get you... certainly pond based fish can pickup "off flavours".... due to algae...

I gave a couple of my trout to the local fishing club champ.... and nut case trout fisherman... straight from the tank...

He reckoned they were as good as any wild caught trout he'd had...

Interesting, as a fellow fishing nut (former these days given the family), if he liked them then they were good.

My expirement is hardly scientific, given I am comparing trout to Barra. But as far as I am concerned, if the slight increase in cost results in better flesh, then I will be happy with that.

Now I wish I had two different systems to run a proper expirement to see if different feeding made a difference.

Does anyone starve and purge their trout or barra in cleaner water prior to eating? How many days? I've done this with trout, need to be careful not to give them completely different water all at once or it may stress them too much. Had success with the last pair, purged for 3-4 days. Yet to eat them, sitting smoked in my fridge.

I expect the food given to a fish could affect the flavor, I know it can affect the color of the meat.

Farmed catfish and tilapia here in the USA are not as healthy to eat (in regards to the omega 3/omega 6 ratios) since the feed they are normally given is mostly corn and soy so the omegas are off compared to the wild caught ones.

Anyway, I expect the particular pellet feed given could even have an effect.

I'm trying to look into ways to provide more "wild" type feeds to my catfish. The bug zappers are a start and BSF larva and worms too. I'm gonna see if there is an easy way to start growing small crustations and mollusks to feed them as those are natural catfish foods. I've been reading how midge larva can improve feed ratios in fish that they are fed to. All sorts of ideas but very sketchy or minimal instructions about how to go about it though.

As Rupe mentions, certain bluegreen algae can cause "off flavors" in fish as well.

Keep us posted about the results of your gourmet trout feeding experiment.

There's certainly some research and I believe a small amount of commercial application, of changing feeds prior to harvest however, most of this is focussed around improving the nutritional profile (omega 3's primarily) which would give a marketing advantage.

I also saw a small article several months ago about a Scottish aquaculture mob (salmon or trout, can't remember) that have recently gotten "wild certification" from the French. They do not feed the fish at the same times, some days not at all, and they change the feed types randomly. The French believe this is giving a better, mor like wild caught, product than from conventional fish growouts.

I'll see if I can dig up the article and post the link here.

im going to feed my next lot of trout mince for a few days before i harvest, to see if that changes the flavour / flesh... a little meat never hurt anyone

I have *offloaded* around 200 Trout this year, and everyone reckons they are awesome. Fed pellets all the time until 2 weeks before harvest, constantly kept in a swirling tank. Heaps of flesh, very little gut fat.

And the last two weeks? Just nothing?

I knew someone would ask that lol.....yes, nothing, it's too hot to feed them anyway.

By now it's nearly 4 weeks since last feed, they are cranky fish

My silvers are just starting to fatten and get taller, and it seems to happen quite quickly.

Do you notice any change in condition after 4 weeks without feed?

would getting a separate tank and Salting it up to somewhere like 4ppt and letting them swim in that for 24-48h do anything?

dad used to fill the bath at home with some salty water for the yabbies when he caught them and let them in there for hours to clean out, at the end the bath would be muddy and the yabbies would taste much better

That's interesting m3tal - thanks. It's standard industry practice to purge yabbies, but have never heard of anyone doing it in saltwater.