Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So ive been grading my rainbow trout (putting the smallest in the sump tank to help keep solids mobile so they can be filtered) and the oddest thing happened - little 8-10 inch fella... well, milted all over my hand! This is from this years batch and not the biggest by a long shot (half the size of the biggest from the same crop) At first i thought id hurt it, but no no, just excited him!

Begs the question - can i breed my own Troutses? I was lucky enough to do work experience at 'the salmon ponds' in New Norfolk, Tas (many years ago) and actually got to milk eggs from big RT's, is this something that can be done 'at home'?

I had one that sexually matured within 6 months grow out but Im unsure how early they can. They develop a hooked lower jaw and darken in colour, apparently not as good eating as others.

And no, you can't breed your own without hormone injections unfortunately. You can rear your own 'fertilised' eggs if you purchase them and have the right equipment and knowledge.

No need for hormone injections with trout, you can easily hand strip the eggs and milt when they are ready to go. Females wont have viable eggs until they are 2yrs old, a few males will mature at 1yr old but most at 2 also.

Well there you go. Thanks Gav.

With the raising of the fry. I know it's a tricky thing, but apart from keeping everything as clean/sterile as possible (keep fungus/diseases wiping them out), the correct feed for size/age, keeping oxygen levels up. Is there much else to it?

I know some fish require dams to mate, but when they've had the eggs fertilised manually, I thought it'd be possible?

I know goldfish are easy enough, hell I probably would have had thousands of fry if the other goldies didn't eat them all. And the few lucky ones I didn't do anything with, they survived on their own.

Great, thanks Guys. Well ill have to see whether the survivor from last year is a boy or a girl, its around the 50cm mark now, if its a girl then ill try and keep her till next year and give it a go.

So far we've bred our own chooks, goldfish, and yabbies - couldn't get much better than breeding trout too!

Question Gav, is now the time of year for egg stripping?

Dunder raised his own for years, seemed fairly straight forward. I think from memory there was a group of them re-stocking local waterways.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12603&p=329006&hilit=eggs#p329006

Hah, I must not look at this thread any more, I know I've got at least one male left from last years batch of trout and a couple of them look a bit girly...I'm getting interested in doing it and I sure don't need the distraction!

But it sounds like it could be an interesting and fun venture.

The tricky bit is knowing when the females are ready, basically you have to keep checking them every few days as once their ready they only remain viable for a couple of weeks. Males are usually ready to go for a couple months so no problems there. Raising the fry isnt that difficult (providing you can keep the water cool over summer), its managing the eggs (particularly before they are eyed up) that is the challenging bit. Trout can spend 4 - 6 weeks in the egg (depends on temp) where as Aust Native fish only spend about a day and a half.

How to decide their sex?

easy put a IIphone with facebook and a mirror in the tank. Then you'll see the females Damn hard to install a bathroom in a fish tank.

There is an old couple that have a trout farm down near Mount Compass in SA. I have not dealt with them at all. Not sure but you could ask them how its done?

Tooperang trout farm, nankita rd - thats where my troutses came from.