Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Put 50 plain goldfish in FT 12 days ago, got my SLO working correctly so they cant travell to GB's anymore, they are all down the bottom of IBC, is this because its so cold or theres enough oxygen down there or what?

Have been feeding a quality mix of fish food flakes that local pet store guarantees, not much but then whats enough or too much.

Come up so I can you see your dopey little faces..............

They fear predators. And you're probably scaring them to the bottom of the tank when you come up to the tank.

When it warms up, they'll get hungrier, and start coming up to say hello and want food.

Also, you're better off with proper aquaculture food. The flakes are fine for an aquarium where you don't want masses of poop, but not great for aquaponic system where you want them producing ammonia. The flakes are usually just dried out algae. Aquaculture feed contains ground up seafood, and other things designed for growth.

Thanks Colum, thats what I was thinking.

Where do I get this aquaculture food from?

https://www.facebook.com/idealfishfeed?fref=ts

Get the feed for the silver perch. It works great, cheaper than the flakes too.

+1 Colum

I use Nova ME 3mm sinking that i get from Ian at Ideal (link Colum provided) but also still use flakes.
The other option is Nova FF 3mm floating but note that GF can have issues with air
(hence good idea to mix it up).

Fish growth is basically protein driven, but goldfish do not like too high protein.
And good idea to keep vegetation in their diet.

for encouraging fish to be a bit more bold try adding some duckweed or surface floating weed. If you get a few patches you will find them grazing it and it is easy to put some flakes in amongst it.
Will use a bit of nutrients if gets sunlight but not that much to be worth worrying about.
If your FT is dark then you may have to grow the duckweed in a separate sump/tank.


GF are fairly inactive in the colder months, and the fact they are OK at the bottom means that water etc is all fine (better than gasping at the top ). As it warms up they will move around and feed a lot more.

Any of you guys know this outfit 'idealfishfood' I sent email yesterday am, facebook today early am and haven't heard a .......nice way to run business, so busy cant answer clients..... I dream for the day.

He's running it on the side, not a full time business. Well I don't think it is anyway.

Give him a day or so, he's usually pretty quick when I message him.

email came through about 2 hours after posting this opps.