Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone ordered barra from Broome Tafe lately?
How'd you go with survival rates?

-K98

If you are in South Freo you don't need to be ordering Barra from Broome. Freo/Challenger TAFE has a Barra breeding program, in fact they transport the fingerlings every year to Broome and Derby. Barra fingerlings can be bought through many retail outlets across Perth, such as Woodvale Fish & Lily, Golden Ponds, and many others.

Oh okay, thanks.
Any idea on when Freo tafe have fry/fingerlings available, and for how much?
Anyone know the best contact for them?

Was aware of the retailers around Perth, but would like to avoid the middle men so to speak!

Thanks heaps

Anybody?

-K98

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5012#p176212

Yeah I know it's an old thread and a long shot but it's worth a go. If you are successful let us know as I have friends who want to give barramundi a go this summer. Personally I like to keep it simple and can't be bothered with the stress at the moment but keen to live through others experiences.

Thanks sir. Appreciate it

-K98

I too am now thinking about barramundi and would like to know about who's kept them here in the Perth region. I'm aware of the need for heating over winter which is in the equation. Stocking density and grow out times are in my question list. Matt Yoga I think was keeping them but I've not heard from him in a while...
Time to bump me thinks....

I have got a couple at the moment.

The expense of heating the water really does outweigh things... I only have 5 barra, and are part of a 2000 ltr odd system. Being outdoors, it costs a lot to heat the water sufficiently - Even doing it the way I am, its not viable and I will not do it again next year without a fair bit more thought.

My system is heated using an outdoor spa, and runs the water through that in piping (so essentially the spa water heats my AP water...) and the house runs solar electricity to try 'counter' the costs a little. The increase in the household power bill is still quite significant from previous years even though the spa heating is usually left running over winter (draws the heat out of the spa, increasing the amount the heater runs etc). I wouldn't imagine that running heating elements in the tanks directly would be more efficient than a larger scale heating system the spa uses!! When I was reading up on this, the aquarium sites I read from, recommend about 1500w of heaters per 1000 ltrs of water (in an indoor environment) if I remember correctly, so can only imagine what you would need outdoors where ambient temperatures are less than 10 degrees at night. You'd be looking at a few thousand in electricity over a winter running these!!

If i try it again next year, I will definitely isolate the barra tank and use a separate grow bed from the rest of the system to reduce the quantity of water that needs to be heated, and minimize the area that heat can be lost. If you were really serious about it (and not just experimenting / having a bit of a laugh like I am), you'd want to fully insulate the tanks/grow beds with proper materials to maintain as much heat as you can, and ideally, have the whole system indoors or in a grow house (then you'd use power for the lighting...) to minimize heat loss. On the bright side, the barra are still happily eating vigorously and the silver perch are enjoying warmer water and maintaining faster growing rates!