Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

NOTE: This tank will be 95% Below ground.

Im wondering what the stocking densaty for fish from the following provider would be in central florida.


3 to 5 inch koi are $5 each when you order 10 or more.
6 to 8 inch koi are $8 each when you order 10 or more.
9 to 10 inch koi are $11 each when your order 10 or more

3 to 5 inch channel catfish are $60 per 100.
6 to 8 inch channel catfish are $80 per 100

Blue gill are $60 per 100 and are 1 to 2 inches. We also mix a few shell cracker in with our blue gill.

Florida large mouth bass 1 to 2 inches are $80 per 100.
3 to 4 inch large mouth bass are $1.25 each.

Blue tilapia 1 to 3 inches are $60 per 100. They are mostly in the 2 to 3 inch range right now.


For those in Florida looking for fish this provider can be found http://tampa.craigslist.org/hdo/grq/3267829710.html

Thank you in advanced.

You'll get a wide range of answers on that... More fish isn't always better. In my mind, not having to worry about the chem levels in the tank is more important than having lots of fish, so I'd err on the side of caution and say 1 fish per 5-7 gallons of grow bed and probably 1 fish per 7-10 gallons of fish tank.

You'll see reports that you can run a tank at 1 fish per 2.5 gallons, but that's just crazy talk. You CAN do it, but you really have to be on top of it, keep the water WELL aerated, monitor chems every day, know how to regulate feeding to mitigate ammo spikes, and have a plan of action if things go awry.

My little 15 fish (and I mean LITTLE... the smallest is less than an inch and I have two 'big' ones running just over two inches) are powering my 60 gallon grow bed. After adding them, I had a growth spurt. Doesn't take many swimmers to make the plants happy.

1to 20 / 25litres of grow bed, ut hee is still a suggested maximum number of fish in a IBC.

so by my calculation i should be able to run max 35 grown fish, dose this sound about right? ill be running close to 300 gallons of GB.

Yeah, 35 fish would be a good, safe start.

The number of Fish you stock is dependent on the Filtration...ie Grow bed volume..

The most important factor is to make sure that any fish you have aren't stressed out...
- so in the Long Run it is much better to stock at a Light rate.. It much better to be on the light side..

If I remember correctly.. Most of the People here will tell you that the best stocking rate is --
3kg of fish to 100lt of Grow-bed volume [or about 25Gal[US]]

So if you want to be safe go Light..

Juergen

AFAIK an important criterium behind such density rules is the amount of produced waste.

However some species pollute more, for example because they eat a more protein-loaded food, or are not as efficient (goldfishes do), and so on.

A bigger fish pollutes much more, this is not linear. Goldfishes, again, see: http://www.goldfishutopia.com/pages/Sto ... evels.html : one single 5" goldfish produces as much waste as fifteen 2" goldfish.

It also varies with metabolic activity, therefore with temperature.

Another criterium may be stress management. Some fishes are territorial, they need space, while others need to be part of a large school.

Aren't those "X fishes in this volume" rules some absolute maximums, and therefore many real cases will be way off? "Per 100 liters: max X of this species" seems more realistic, isn't it? Or did I miss something?

Yeah, you really can't give a maximum stocking density that will truly be a maximum stocking density. There are SO many factors to take into acct: fish species, fish age, feed type, feed volume, tank size, GB size, media type, temperature, water turnover rate, water pH, number and type of plants....

The best we can hope for is the maximum density of fish that will give the best chance of success for a new system, which isn't the same as the true maximum for that system

The 1 fish (grown out to 500g) per 25L of GB is a tried and tested safe 'maximum' recommendation only.

Of course there is many, many factors but the above is just a guidline and is much easier to tell newbies looking for some safe numbers rather than going into all the other variables which can become quite confusing.

And the water quality.. and oxygen requirements of Australian freshwater fish... are much tighter than most other overseas species...

So if it works "safely" here... it should do so anywhere...

Well im a Nwebi so trat me as Such

No worries Cybern... jsut handing out the cool aid...