Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys

I have just gone through a very slow and pain staking yet successful process of weaning my Murray Cod onto pellets when I read a local newspaper story about trying to eradicate European Carp from the local river system.

They are easy to catch and and a pest and I thought that they could be an easy fresh food alternative feed for the Murray Cod.

Are there any know issues with feeding fresh fish to Murray Cod in an Aquaponics System?

I'd love to give Murray Cod a go... but hear they're a bit tricky and don't feel ready for it yet.

So I can't speak from personal experience - but anything that reduces the number of carp in our rivers can't be bad. I hear they have very big mouths and http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/i ... ls/7341514 suggests that they can stomach nearly anything.

The biggest thing I'd worry about would be possibly introducing parasites or disease. You could at least reduce the chances of that happening by keeping the carp alive in a salted quarantine tank for several days, or process them (including cooking) into homemade pellets... which might also avoid any possibility of un-weaning your cod!

Hi Dave

If you are keen to visit my Murray Cod I also live in the Northern Rivers.

I have both Silver Perch and Murray Cod.

I was thinking that maybe freezing the carp fillets for a couple of days might be enough to kill any parasites.

Has anyone else tried this?

Would be keen to see your setup... if you're not too far away. PM about to be sent.

Freezing should fix the parasite problem, yup (I know that's why it's recommended for snake food! dunno why I didn't think of that straight away, oops), but I wouldn't feed them just fillets - they'll need the nutrients in bones and scales. If they can swallow golf balls they can manage carp chunks!

Cod are quite tricky to wean onto anything but live fish. However, if you can get the fish for free, I'd try to wean them onto it. Catch them, chop them into pellet sized bits(or just blitz them), freeze them and try it out.

There are a few tutorials on here that show how to make fish food pellets, you could try them with the carp.

Better get in quick

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-01/h ... ys/7373736

I dont know if it can be done or not, I have never kept anything but catfish, but we have a very similar problem with invasive carp species here in the US. They are basically a kill on site fish, with no limits on amount harvested. They have even injured several fisherman, by jumping out of the water and slamming into them.

I dont know if it is the same species or not, but anything you can do to get rid of those pests, I say do it. Luckily, these pests havent made it to my local lakes and rivers yet, but it is just a matter of time. They are steadily making there way to us.

Using any kind of virus on a wild river or lake population scares the heck out of me though. Sounds like they are doing as much due diligence as possible, but there are many things you just can not test or plan for in a controlled environment.

Hi
Is it really true that your government is going to introduce the, Herpes virus, into the Murray River to control the carp?

Yup, go for it I say. They are suppressing any native fish we have in there, and have turned the water all muddy and cloudy from bottom feeding.

It'll be messy in the short term when they start dying in mass though, and will take a while for native fish to recover.

Im all for getting rid of the carp,im just concerned about some sort of possible fall out from using a viral agent to get rid of them. I imagine the smell of all those floaters will be something to behold as well, but ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if you ask me.

They say that only carp and Koi will be decimated. I've no problems with the carp but there might be some nervous Koi owners out there.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I would imagine so. I have never gotten into keeping koi. I put in a small water feature in my wifes flowers beds last year, I tossed in some ten cent feeder gold fish.

I'm hoping the virus won't make it through water treatment, it'd suck if they did. If Koi owners are hooked directly to the river, then I think they are breaking a few laws.

I'm hoping that the days of releasing cane toads to eat cane flies are over, it'll be a bit better researched.