Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There is a short time when eggs are "ripe" naturally ... and can be stripped.... it was a matter of waiting and selecting... stripping and fertilising... trout are easy in comparison to most fish...

I remember seeing this episode on landline last yr, all I can find is the transcription........his breeding methods are mentioned near the end of the interview

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2002174.htm

No hormones needed to spawn trout, the eggs are easily stripped & fertilized by hand when the fish are ready.
Not all fish can re-absorb their eggs Rup and Trout generally cant. As a result the females will usually die when they become egg bound having two years worth of eggs remaining in their body.
Of course this wouldnt happen in nature as the fish would normally spawn in a creek and rid itself of its eggs.
There are quite a few trout farms around the Mt Barker area though many have closed up in recent years with the declining rainfall. Of all the ones I know of none ever breed their own fish and some of these were turning out 40 000 trout a year. Its no coincidence that WA's two major trout hatcheries are located on permanent cool flowing streams.

Interesting... so you can't hormone induce trout if they pass their normal season.... you have to wait until next season....

I stand corrected... is that only relevant to salmonoids Troutman

Thats right, you have a short window when the eggs are ready and thats when you have to breed them. The season can be anywhere from May to October (in southern hemisphere)depending on the variety of trout and the locality. In WA Rainbows usually spawn in May/June where as in Tasmania it can often be as late as October.

I stand corrected... is that only relevant to salmonoids Troutman [/quote]
You got me there Rup, I dont know of any other species off hand that cant re-absorb their eggs.

Interesting, so your saying that in a tank the female trout will probably die after a couple of years? But in natural conditons in streams they will shed the eggs?

So is the hatchery in Pemby the only place in W.A. that breeds trout ?

Yeah thats right, not just in tanks but also in dams where they dont have access to any inflowing streams. You could always manually strip the hens of their eggs to prolong their lifespan if you wanted.


As far as I am aware Pemberton is the only place in WA where Trout are bred.

I have been reading this thread with interest and performing some other research when I came across this page on the Dept of Fisheries site: http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/aq/aq015/index.php?0308

Under the heading "Spawning behaviour" it says:

Just goes to show arbe you cant believe everything you read. There is heaps of misinformation out there, especially on some of the forums. In this case however I hate to tell you that the fisheries spiel is incorrect in regard to Rainbow Trout which is what 99% of aquaponics enthusiasts use in their systems.

Over the years I have dissected many female Rainbow Trout from farm dams and most of the older females have had two distinct sets of eggs in their cavity. The new eggs are easily distinguished from the old dead eggs thru the difference in size and colour. If you need more proof the following quotes come from another WA fisheries paper but at least this document has some credible authors. http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/mp/mp156/fmp156.pdf

Thank you Troutman. From reading many of your posts on this forum, I think I will trust your response over information posted on a website - even though that website is the local Fisheries Dept.

interesting !!!

So if some fisheries are are producing 40k + fish every year but not breeding. Where do those numbers of fingerlings come from? One main breeder or are they wild caught?

Fascinating stuff. +1 Troutman.

The main breeder in WA produces many hundreds of thousands of fry each year. These are used to stock public waters and also by fish farmers and aquaponics enthusiasts. The wild trout fishery here is largely just a put and take with virtually no natural recruitment at all.

Hi All, as troutman says from what i've found around the south coast no commercial growers keep fish over summer, but with access to cool fresh water, i kept my trout over summer in my pond & tonite we caught our 4th fish 3/4 kg clean (not as big as that one Troutman has in his pic) but i'm astounded at the growth these creature put on sooo quickly. we caught 3 a few weeks back all 1/2 kg so they are growing fast now - wonder what weight the ones we don't catch will reach this time next year!!!

cheers ST

This is the Hatchery I saw. There where a couple of small tanks with beat up looking males and females in. Then they had the two long trays with the plastic baskets in them. Water was circulated through a filter and cooling system and then into the trays which had small gravel bed filters in them. The trays are full of eggs about 3 or 4mm diameter. In among the eggs where trout that had hatched out. The lady working there was siphoning the tiny little fish into a bucket.