Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

With the horrible summer we have had in Melbourne, the SP fingerlings I got for this season have been growing very slowly. Some have not grown at all.

I have a spread of sizes as of today, from 50mm to 100mm.

Whats the liklihood of a fishkill when the mercury drops this winter?

Who else is in a similar situation?

If you are worried you could try turning off the pumps at night when the time comes. If the fish are small the air pumps overnight will be all they need

You should be right, we got all our SP fingerlings through last winter and they were a similar size.. If you were talking black bream you might be in a bit more trouble.

Hopefully she'll be right...some runts wont make it, but hopefully not a mass kill.

I dont pump at night...may system is currently a mix of siphons on 15ON/30OFF timer 8am to 8pm. I run air 24/7.

Might do a grading exercise and split them into my 3 IBC tanks before I grab this seasons trout.

Silver Perch are a very hardy fish - mine have survived Melbourne Temps Ok without heating water during Winter - and without cooling water during the Summer.
I probably underfed mine for first 12 months... BUT they are growing quicker now. Lost 8 fish for "unknown" reasons (all small "runts") out of 50 over last 20 months - "harvested" 2.
My fish went into AP System sized at 25mm and 35mm - so yours are much more mature at this stage. My AP System now has a 50lpm Electromagnetic Air Pump - and runs 24/7 with Siphon.
I'm sure you will be Ok.
Best wishes - ColinW

Good to hear Colinw

Its more of a worry up here as we get frosts and you guys in Melbourne dont. But I reckon mine should be ok. Time will tell

Be fine - cover the tank to stop frosts chilling the water that extra little bit. I had SP of similar size and got them through a winter no problems.

In the same boat as you VLT. I have been wondering the same thing. It's been a bit frustrating and my veg growth has been a bit unbalanced as well I think. Do people tend to add trout to the same system when their silvers go dormant? Would it be risky overstocking if the Silvers are not feeding?

It isent wise to put trout in the same tank as small silvers the trout will out grow the silvers in no time and make a meal of them

I have 3 ibc tanks joined to my main 2000 litre tank.

Going to shift the dormant SP into the IBCs and grade and count them.

Trout will go into the main tank.

Hi vlt

I'm in the same situation as you, my silvers have grown slowly & i haven't seen the veges take off like others. Am just putting it down to an immature system & the indifferent summer we've had. I was going to ask about having SP's & trout in the same tank but after F&F's post i will be trying to get a second system on line in the next couple of weeks. Having 2 systems & growing trout during the winter in 1 while over wintering the SP's in the other should be able to have a steady supply of fish towards next summer. Baring any mishaps of course.
Good luck.

Todd

Good to know I am not the only paronoid ap'er

This summer has been strange....not a true Melbourne summer...

Anyways.....lets hope the little SP are ok this winter....might be like last winter where is was quite mild.

F&F, did you get your trout?

Might go the Ballarat in a few weeks.

I've got the sump never going below 500litres (in 1000ltr IBC) - I was thinking of that as the stocker and then taking the trout out when the weather gets to silver feeding time....maybe 30 or so...?

Trout probley next weekend