Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was browsing the Victorian Dept Primary Industries site and saw they have been conducting stocking of Lakes on a large scale. What struck me was they released Atlantic Salmon into Bullen Merri Lake (described as brackish) and Lake Purrumbete, which is a fresh water lake.

So, given how much I like me salmon, I'm going to do some searching to see what requirements they might have, but thought I'd ask here first... Anyone know about AP and slamon or know of any reason that would preclude them from a system?

Obviously I don't think I'd be feeding them up to full size - that'd be a bloody big tank.

I think Tony in Tas got some delivered by mistake and ended up having to keep them, but i think he managed to kill them all before harvesting


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I was once young and stupid, i'm not so young now

Mark lurves salmon.

Once I get up and running they might be my first experiment. I'm still brainstorming at present, trying to think of all the possibilities so I don't commit and then find there are things I want to do that I can't.

Some salmon live their whole lives in fresh water, those might be easier to raise than the kind that spend part of their lives in the ocean.

That's about all I've got. I'd love to raise salmon, it's my favorite fish to eat, but I've got enough other things going on right now that I haven't been able to do much research on them.

Hi Ellendra, thanks for that. My uzzle is I thought Atlantic Salmon were salties so while I could understand they have part of their cycle in fresh (thinking of the salmon 'runs' from the US here) I can't figure out why the DPI would be stocking them into a fresh lake...

My first thought was maybe they're expecting them to find the sea somehow? But I checked the map and there seems to be no connection.

As I said, once I get the mountain of research and learning done and get a system running, I'm going to look further. I just wondered if someone had already tried them...

No idea where you would get fingerlings from for a start or if they are even allowed

*grins* Clearly the DPI knows where to get them - they stocked 16,000 into 2 lakes at Camperdown. Maybe I can get them from the DPI? (do they even do that?)

I dont think so. You might have to go to the lakes and catch some

Can get eggs... http://www.springfish.com.au/SpringFishWeb.swf

Could try Glenwater.. and see what they say.. I know they have some in one of there ponds but whether they will say I can't say..

They have some lovely trout thou..

Juergen

Atlantic Salmon prefer water temps between 8-18.... best growth between12-16... and a salinity around 15ppt... growth rates are dependant on water temps and salinity....

15ppt is about three times what most plants will bare for any prolonged time...

Most salmon aquaculture is done in sea cages...

http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/ ... mon_fs.pdf

You can get "landlocked" populations... and it might be possible to grow them out in freshwater AP.... to <1kg....

Most of the "salmon" farmed in freshwater systems in the US, Canada.... aren't the Atlantic variety....they're fresh water types... Pacific Salmon... like the Chinock...

This is probably what was stocked into the lakes in Victoria... not the Atlantic Slamon...

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries/rec ... ook-salmon

You can grow Atlantic Salmon to large sizes in freshwater, they dont need to go into salt at all.
This place http://www.41southtasmania.com/salmon/ farms them only in fresh and some of the ones they have in their ponds must be close on 15 - 20lbs.
Most Trout Farms in Vic also do Atlantic Salmon, I know Buxton does and others nearby.
Lake Jindabyne in the Snowys and many lakes in Vic and Tas are stocked with Atlantics for recreational fishing.
The thing is though that out of freshwater I cant taste any difference between a Trout and an Atlantic Salmon. I also read an article once where they were testing if people could taste the difference between Atlantic Salmon and Rainbow Trout grown in ocean sea cages and only 1 in 10 people could taste the difference. The reason that Salmon are grown more than Trout in sea cages is that they fetch are far greater price.

you just focus your energy into those Jades Gav

We had Atlantics here many years ago, they bred them in Pemberton and even farmed them in Sea cages off Albany. It wasnt to successful though and all folded up.

We caught atlantic salmon at a fishing joint near Eildon a couple of years ago. They had several small ponds with trout in one, natives in another and the salmon in yet another. By the look of the plant growth in and around that pond in was fresh water and the fish we got were about 2kg
They had a milder flavour than trout when smoked