Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I must Google protein level of worms as my Silver Perch love them. Could cut back on pellets and feed more greens and worms. Very sustainable as greens growing well in system and have two big (bathtub sized) worm farms.

I've thought the same thing, now I'm tempted to put a small net under the gb outlet to see how often it happens.
Mind you I don't find many in the GB yet, despite adding them.

Dead right about the super trawler gmturner!!!

are you burying offcut leaves and banana peels etc?

i only put mine in a few weeks ago and i already find heaps and they are breeding like crazy, i uncovered a dead broccoli leaf and a worm slithered away and the leaf was covered in hundreds of baby worms, little white spots that look like tiny termites.

I'm not burying any extra organic matter in my GBs- the remaining masses of roots from celery, tomatoes etc would provide plenty for them to get stuck into. I know they are breeding, as I have come across quite a few worms in GBs that I hadn't added any to, so they, or their eggs, have been from GB to FT to ST then via the pump to another GB.

Another type of sustainable food I'll be testing out on the Murray Cod in a few days is blowfly maggots (fed on dead rabbits). The trout ate a few, but weren't hugely enthusiastic about them, but I think the cod will go for them- they certainly go for worms a lot more than the trout did.

Indeed... home grown food helps compensate for poorly sustainable commercial food.. but that does not solve the exploitation in Thailand, where I wonder if they have gone beyond recovery..

GG... have you tried a Margot Farm... seeing those images of squirming masses seems practical... claims of Kg's of frozen grubs sounds just perfect.. my problem is there is a strange lack of flies ATO..
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I've not specifically tried a maggot farm, other than DIY- a dead rabbit in a bucket

Seems so wrong, when it could be used for practical benefit.. but then "SOMEONE" would use loop-holes to create 100% Bi-Catch.. ie. replicate what's happening in Thailand

I wonder what happens to the tons of fish waste from the markets..

Remember the Blood-N-Bone trucks collecting butcher-waste..
You wonder why there could not be a market for collecting fish waste..?
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There is from the aquaculture industry.

According to a big brand feed producer in Europe 17% of their f/fo fish and fishoil is from farmed fish processing waste.

When it comes to the by catch issue, I think that the trawlers should be obliged to return to dock with it and hand it over at no price to be used as fish meal. Avoiding the potential problems with the unscrupulous deliberately targeting it. The fishers (who i am not against) would likely do all they could to avoid wasting hull space.
I remember being at the beach when the trawlers dumped the by catch too close to shore or on the way into dock one day. The sheer volume of dead whiting and other fish that washed up was astounding. Thousands upon thousands of them all along the beach.

It does not go to waste as it is consumed by other fish in the sea who we then catch later.