Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The nature outside is just about to wake up. I did the grape pruning the other day.



If all is to plan, tomorrow is catfish day, so it was just time for a harvest.

I pulled 10 trouts, sized 416-522 grs (average 490gr) there should be an other 27-28 in the tank. It was a family event, and to my surprise everybody took a part!

That must be a good feeling. Not only dinner for tonight, but a stash in the freezer. With fresh produce for the picking just a short walk on your own property.

It's a milestone.

Silurus Glanis - Wels Catfish



I'm getting back to my dream, catfish in the tank. Details later.

Awesome ZsaZsa! Great to see the children involved and obviously loving it. Have things calmed down a bit for you after the media publicity?

Thx Faye!
Its really a special week, with the first mass trout harvest, and the arrival of the catfish.

The media have calmed down but the people are getting hungrier day by day. I have published the complete design of my GH and AP system, and so far it was downloaded by 1000+ people. (By the way, I have sent it to Joel as well to update it in the IBC of Aquaponics, and got no answer.) My facebook fan page is living a life of its own, it has reached a critical mass and ist growing by it self every day.

I allready know of 10+ aquaponic system in Hungary that has been started this year, mostly small trials but there are also some bigger ones as well, and the first few with passives solar greenhouse are also under construction.

We still havent finished the book, but at least the end is in visible distance now. So its busy, in an other way now...

Nice zsazsa! Got me inspired for catfish... Just the darned slow growing Tilapia are in their tank.

Will you be able to keep the trout long as the temps go up?

Those trout look awesome! Got a smoker?

How many catfish do you have now?

I have bought 50 catfishes and still have 27-28 trout in the tank.

The trout are in the FT, the catfish are in the sump. These are wild catfish, so I have to teach them to eat pellet. The plan is to wait a few days, then simply try it. If no success, I'm gonna add some trout to the sump. Those know the pellets, lets see if they can teach the cats.

Trout and catfish in the same tank is a nonsense. I asked every fishermen and noone has a clue what will happen. These never meet in nature, and noone tried them in one tank before. So lets see!

I think/hope I can keep the temps under 20 untill july. So I asked for an other set of trout, this time bigger ones ~150-180gr each. Those could reach 350gr untill july. If I get the new set the current stock of trout has to go. I would only keep a few to see if they could make it throu the summer.

Briann@No smoker, but I'll borrow one for the next time.

Yay! I hope it works for you this time.

I'm still thinking of having Wels Catfish one day. I'm starting with Tilapia, though, once I finish putting up my greenhouse. (Not a passive solar one like yours, though).

Major HSM yesterday!

I have bad luck with the catfish. I have an interconnecting pipe between the two sumps. Its only 4cm in diameter but befor that they have to swim through the tap valve of the IBC. I know its possibele as trout did it when it was young so I was watching them after arriveal what would they do. They tried but i thought they were just to big. I was wrong. The the two smallest did it. They managed to get through the first tap but they stucked into the seccond one.



They perfectly blocked the pipe, and this is how a catastrophy begins.

To make it worse the catfish came with full bellies, and from the stress the threw up lots of hal digested fish, which I tried to remove from the system, but it raised the ammonia and the nitrite anyway. So I had a halted system with risen ammonia and nitrite levels. The trout in the fishtank the cats in the sump. This is the moment when the pump ran dry, the circulation stopped.

temp: 15,5C
amm: 1
no2: 1
NO3: 100
PH: 6,5

Losses:
17 trout 250-450gr each, a few of the bigger ones made it.
2 smallest cats died blocking the pipe.
7 cats jumped out from the overflowing sump, with even worse ammonia and nitrit readings.





Trouts most likely died of lack of oxigen and added shock from other element including amm, nitrtit, and netting a day before.

My fault! I knew the cats will try it, I should have put a simple filter there to block them.

Oh no that is terribke Zsazsa. I feel your pain

Oh no, how long had the pump been off for those fish to die? Was it a few hours or something?

Damn, that sucks big time! I so want for you to succeed with the catfish. We're all learning. I'm actually also planning a 4cm pipe between my two sumps, although not through a tap.

Your efforts togrow fresh food are amazing and inspirational.
Onwards and upwards Zsazsa
Have you ever thought of moving to a mediterranean climate