Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone tried buying eggs instead of fry? Granted, they'd take a lot longer to grow out and you'd have to make sure you could keep the water a good temp all year round. Any thoughts are appreciated.

i was thinking about it.. but it will be a while before i'm ready..

What species are you thinking of??

You would also need to have the different types of food available. This is something i have been looking at because i want to try and breed a few aquarium fish. Will be interesting to hear everyones thoughts.

I have to thin out my Kribensis as they breed like rabbits with no help from me. Guppies the same of course

I would like a few more dwarf gouramis and a few more neons wouldnt hurt. I have a female gourami on the way so hopefully we will see some action

I have raised trout, browns and rainbows, from ova in Adelaide. Eggs are easy to transport and I found no problems raising then to about 200 mm. I then take them up to a dam as the summer temps in Adelaide can get too high in my home. A very rewarding experience. I have done it twice, over the last two years.
I hatch them in a home made egg basket which sits inside an indoor aquarium.
Only use a gravel filter so that the micro critters you feed them do not get filtered out.
I grow my own daphnia, that I originally got from a farm dam. I feed the daphnia leftover beer yeast from my home made beer. I also feed them mosquito larvae, plenty of those in my backyard tub. The mosquito larvae are their favorite as they are nice and soft, unlike the daphnia that have a shell with spike.
With rainbows, you can just feed them starter dust pellets but you always get better results with live food.
Rainbows are a very different fish to Browns. They need much less nutrition for growth and will outgrow the brows very quickly.

I was thinking trout of some sort.

Try this link out. It will help you get started.

http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/teac ... nformation

Very important to use an under-gravel filter!!

This is a photo of the egg basket I made. Its a 9 litre plastic container with lid. The bottom has been cut out and shade cloth was sewed on as a new bottom. The sides and lid were covered with black plastic. About one centimetre of gravel was placed on top of the shade cloth. A 2 cm hole was drilled for the pipe fitting. An air stone goes into the pipe to create a water current through the gravel. A filter made of shade cloth goes over the input of the pipe to stop the alevin from going into the main tank too early. The alevin need to remain in the dark for approx 2 weeks.


Last year, I raised just over 300 browns. I also raised some albino rainbows, just for something different.

Nice work

thats the dream man... thats the dream!

I should also mention that one of the secrets, I have personally found re managing fish eggs, is to have a large population of Ostracods in your aquarium. They are also known as Seed Shrimp. They are a micro crustacean that will help keep the eggs clean. Probably the main problem people experience re keeping eggs is the growth of fungi. Often a white fungi which kills the eggs. The Ostracods will eat the fungi but not the live eggs. However, they will eat dead eggs, which also helps if you have not removed them from the egg basket.

Here is a photo of Ostracods eating a dead egg, from my two foot aquarium.

I use red cherry shrimp for the exact same reason.

And if you leave the shrimp in there, eventually they become a high protein snack

We have LOADS of red cherry shrimp in our pond here at the shop, interesting little critters..

I have ordered 10 glass shrimp for my FT. Hopefully they will arrive this week. Will they do the same thing for cleaning the eggs?