Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

lol... No the fish!

I went to soladome today. the young bloke there was really helpful. he helped me sped lots of money on an air pump, stones, lines etc LOL
On top of that, he said maybe the fish had a kidney infection or something like that. He said every fish he had autopsied had pale coloured organs. He was also of the opinion that fish, like any livestock, do just die. However, if any more follow, enter HSM.

He also suggested salt may help with any bacterial style infection, so when I got home, the big one was still alive, albeit in not great health ie on its side not moving. so he received a new home, an air stone and 10 parts salt. To which he replied with a few kicks of the tail and a bit of upright time, followed by laying on his side again. But not dead yet.

I asked him if he would eat the fish. He said he wouldn't, then he said maybe try it and see how it tasted then go from there.

One more thing, he said barra are particularly tolerant of nitrates. Reckons some farms run them up to 1500ppm

He runs his tanks at 300, which means daily 10% water changes, and he stocks up to 100kg's per 1000 litres

huh

A guy at the aquaponic lectures was growing barra. Said that one of the things that sold him on it was claims that they tolerate high nitrate levels. Said that that did not turn out to be correct and suggested that some strains may cop it better - bepending on their genetics (eg - come from stock used to living in small waterholes etc).

well, the barra are getting bigger every day. About 10 in there now are looking like they are the greedy ones to be first in the pan
I am sure there must be some cannibalism going on, as there seem to be less fish that are considerably smaller than others. Also, a couple are sporting injuries such as broken jaws or scales missing etc. Other than that, they are going well. Acouple of pics. It is hard to judge their size in the tank.

Things have certainly changes since the first pics you posted Stu.

Yep, and it's amazing how when they get to this stage, they really seem to take off. I wanna pull a couple out and weigh them. If I do, I will post the weights here. I will start eating them at 300 grams considering that summer may be coming to a close fairly soon and it will be harder to keep the temps up for them

looking at those pics I see a lot of fish barbies comming up
They are looking good there monya!

Hi Stu,



I've read some place that growing fish in the presence of very high nitrate levels leads to a muddy taste in the fish. Might be worth a bit more research.

Those photos are bound to appeal to any backyard fish farmer.

Gary

Can almost taste em, great pics Mon.

GD - any idea where you might have read that?... I am eager to look into that for obvious reasons.

I know that raised nitrate levels in the waterand other contaminants often affect taste, odor, or appearance water - which I suppose could affect the taste of the fish (as well as its health )

yep, that's along the lines of what I have been thinking too. It seems to make sense that the cleaner the water, surely the better the fish should taste. I'll let you know in a month or so!

If your fish taste "muddy" it may mean poor pond cleaning practices - this is all I can come up with respect to muddy tasting fish
and this:

[web]http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/newslett.nsf/all/aqua7761[/web]


So Blue green algae also seems to be to blame for muddy taste in fish, but this should seldom be a problem in private AP systems....

Other aquaculture sites simply say that you should purge your fish for a few days as this will eliminate the muddy taste.