Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So the bluegill are not eating (much). Water temp is just under 60F (15C). The big ones are afraid and scatter to the back of the tank although a few of the braver ones caught a red worm as it was falling. The little ones were also somewhat interested in the worms but too small to eat a worm. I think with this water temperature, I have time to figure this out before they starve.

I will throw a couple worms in each time I open the cover, so they associate me with food. Then add mushed pellets with the worms when they start to get more aggressive, then back off on the worms and start throwing in whole pellets. I'll need to crush some pellets for the small ones anyway.

Any other advice?

Saw some flashing so I've added some salt. Fortunatrly, the dollar store on the corner has uniodized sea salt. So far added 350 ppm (half the container). Will add the other half in a couple hours.

I've added salt to about 1 ppt. I've had a few small fish die each day. Several are swimming sluggishly near the top so I think this will continue. None of the fish are eating pellets so I've been harvesting worms. Water temperature still around 60F (15C) and all parameters are good (pH just under 7, no nitrites or ammonia).

They will mouth the pellets and a few will eat them after the pellet has soaked for a while and I squish the pellet and make it sink. They do eat worms, although not very aggressively--some worms will sit at the bottom fo the tank for a few minutes. After a bit of study, a fish will usually suck them up.

Bullhead in the sump tank are doing just fine. They have become very shy so won't come get the pellets when I throw them in but I've been giving them a few pellets each day and they've been eating them (just at night when I'm not there).

Any advice regarding the bluegill would be welcome.

Update:

Seed starting system seems to have worked ok. Some seeds didn't sprout but the seeds were in my unheated mini greenhouse with varying temperature.

Pics attached with seedlings in gb. Transplanted 4 days ago. You can see parts of the egg carton in the photo of the dill.

Fish doing better. Not eating much still but much less shy and at least interested in food. No deaths for several days.

Fish are ok but water is still cold. They seem to eat if I soak pellets in water then squish them so they sink. This is better than pawing through compost heap for worms for each feeding.

Starting a wicking bed with left over ibc bottom. Plan to put sweet potatoes in it.

I'm planning to put 10-20 feet of slotted corrugated 4 inch(100mm) drain pipe plus an inverted 5 gal bucket in the bottom for a reservoir. The drain will be in the bucket such that there is an air space at top consistent with advice from this forum (Food&Fish has some posts on this).

I plan to fill with the following. For the bottom several inches (10cm) perlite only. Top with perlite, peat, compost, leaf mold, worm castings. Very top layer of hardwood mulch after planting.

Any advice? What grows well accompanying the sweet potatos? Peppers? Eggplant?

Wicking bed done except for a couple inches more to fill. Miracle grow was on sale for half off. After seeing ingredients of mainly peat and compost, I decided to use that plus perlite plus leaf mold and worm casting that I already had. Also I used half sand half perlite in the bottom. Below are a couple pics.

Video tour.

I've not done this before. apologies if something goes wrong.





https://youtu.be/op-6ABA3lQk

That rocks bro!

Photo below. Plants starting to take off. Biggest issue is weather has been cool so the sweet potatoes aren't growing and starting to be shaded out by nearby regular potatoes in the wicking bed.

Good guy or bad guy?

The adult Crane Fly (if that is what it really is) would not cause a problem for your plants and most types normally would die in a couple weeks anyway. The larvae could be considered a bit of a pest because they feed on the roots, root hairs, crown, and, sometimes the leaves of crops, stunting their growth or killing the plants.



Such a pretty face!

--
Sam

The Crane Fly larvae (called "Leatherjackets") to keep an eye out for look like this:



--
Sam

Thank you! It looked scary enough so I was hoping it was a predator

They make good fish food.

Found another today. Fish got it as soon as it hit the water.