Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

actually I think Ill post this in the general area

man this aquaponics thing works well as intensive care for plants

I planted some tiny baby spinach seedlings a few weeks ago. They want in as 2 cm long sprouts

They spent the first 2 days lying flat because they were out of the seed raising mix too long when I was untangling the roots, and because I planted them on a hot day in the middle of the day. Generally speaking they were all doomed.

Its two weeks later and they look like this



100% survival.

Normally I would have just dropped seed into the media but wanted a head start after moving house.

and just met the retired guy a few houses down the road at his garage sale.

He's one of those cool old dudes who does stuff.

he might turn out to be the solution to my aquaponics problem.

I have 2 IBC's. He has some space, a general fascination with stuff, lots of wine, lots of pvc fittings, and what looks like a 1200 litre round plastic fish tank.

He was making a sac truck when we first walked in so he has some welding skills as well.

I wonder if he has a kid who owns a gravel quarry...

It just occurred to me...

My silver perch aren't very silver.

Does everyone else have silver, silver perch?

I caught one in the Murray River once and it was very silver.

Mine look like this...

mine range from dark grey to light brown and all shades in between.

nice to see to have ignored the landlords ruling and got your system going

nah I kept strictly to the rules. These are naturally occurring native fish In fact, now that they are here, its probably illegal to move them

I think I'll wait a few months and then ask if its ok. I'm sure we can work something out. Even I I have to pay a bit extra bond. I guess the idea of 50kg of rancid fish and 2 ton of stinking meat flavoured water is a bit of a worry if your tenant does a runner.

But I might just move everything to the house down the road, and set up the 2 IBC's I still have.

Cool, hope you can talk your neighbour into setting up a system... Lots of wine too hey? Sounds ideal..

Our silvers are quite dark, they adapt themselves to the colour of their surroundings. We have noticed that with ne3w system with clean beige tanks, stick silvers in that are fairly dark then when you look a few days later they are a lighter colour.. As biofilm grows and their environment get darker the fish get darker as well..

That makes sense. I seem to recall them being silver when I got them.

I wonder why the one I caught on the murray was so silver. I guess the whiteness of the river. It's pretty milky. Or perhaps its dark on the bottom. fish tend to go lighter in caves. Who knows.

Mine range from silver to quite a dark brown. The bigger ones seem to be lighter.

My fish had some kind of party and trashed the place.

Some did a bit of damage to themselves as well. Lost some scales.

The one that spends a fair bit of time on the right or second from the right is the worst off.

Something in there messing around, chasing them, or somehow getting them stirred up? Maybe a cat, dog, or whatever other kind of critter ya'll have over there that likes to fish?

Is the system salted after the move and all? If no then I would probably give em between 1-3 ppt just to sooth the scrapes.

We don't have pets any more, but I guess cats don't respect boundaries.

There is another thing that may have caused it. I have half a terracotta pot spit in half from top to bottom in the FT as a hide. I recently knocked the bottom out so it is no longer a cave, but is now a tunnel. Perhaps they no longer reverse into it gently, but now just barge in and swim through it too fast or something.

Yeah I guess that wouldn't hurt. They don't seem distressed by it but I suppose it's the equivalent of a graze to human skin.