Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am getting ready for my small trial run AP system to get up and running. Looking at stocking it with bluegill, bass, or crayfish. Anyone here have these in their AP system?

I've have bluegill and channel catfish. Bluegill are slow growers but very tough to kill. Pretty sure bass are faster growers than bluegill and are also pretty tough I suspect. Crayfish are cannibalistic and you probably won't get many out because of it.

I'd go with either the Bass or the Bluegill depending on how much room there is in the fish tank.

Thank you Scotty. I am leaning towards bluegill. They are the easiest to acquire here. I would think they don't require as much feed either and probably are most diverse in what I can feed them.

I have 100-120 gal. FT so I think I figured 8-10 fish based on some figures I got from here.

For their size Bluegill are pretty good eaters actually. They will be better for a tank that size than bass would be.

Base the number of fish mostly on the filtration you have but also on the size of the fish tank as you've done. http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6646

what are you feeding your bluegill and catfish scotty?

Skrettings Classic Trout pellets (about 40% protein, the 4 or 5mm size), I have both floating and sinking and the sinking work better because a lot of times they don't want to come to the surface to feed. Usually they come up in the summer but not in cooler weather. The protein is a bit high for the catfish. I also feed worms and hard boiled egg since I have a surplus of chicken eggs so lately that's what I've been using the most of. FYI the eggs aren't really hard boiled - I break a bunch of eggs into a bowl then pour about six of them into a quart freezer style ziplock bag, then use an immersion heater (aka - sous vide cooker) to cook them for about an hour at 162 F. The eggs firm up and are fully cooked. Beats the heck out of trying to peel hard boiled eggs. I can't vouch for the nutritional value of these for fish although I think they probably are pretty good. It's best to use the formulated commercial feed for this reason or at least mix it up a bit with feeds so they get everything they need. FWIW as far as I know there isn't a commercial feed that specifically formulated for bluegills partly because they still need studies to see what nutrients bluegill need.

On the Trout pellets, it's tougher to tell when to stop feeding and if there is leftover feed with the sinking feeds version but if I only had one type, that's what I'd get for the bluegill. You can use the floating, get it wet and then give it a squeeze so that it will sink - it's not a big deal if that's all that you can find.

You might have to feed train your fish if you're catching them locally. Some of mine took to pellets better than others. Sometimes the fish won't want to go back on pellets if you give them something else and they have to get hungry enough they'll take the pellets again.

Thanks for the info scotty

I've had bluegill and bass and I second the recommendation for bluegill. If bass aren't feed trained when young, they won't eat pellets. They also have stricter diet requirements.

Copy that. Bluegills it is. Scott what have you fed bluegills?

If you mean aside from the things I posted above, then grasshoppers, crickets, earwigs, grubs, black soldier fly larvae, caterpillars, army worms, the occasional moth and more - they'll eat a lot of different insects and the occasional tadpole. I'm not sure about snails and slugs because my chickens get all of those. I avoid feeding them anything that might have contaminants from pesticides or herbicides or things that might really much up the water. You might be able to get some free food for them by putting a low voltage light in the water at night (others here have done this) so that bugs fly in and accidentally hit the water.

If you think they'll eat it, they probably will, just don't keep feeding them something they won't eat or you'll have to clean it out.

Thank you scotty. I was thinking of those too. I was asking scott_dc who said he had bluegill too. I didn't even think you both had similar names. But thank you that is good to know. I was thinking of having a mealworm farm to raise food.

Oops! By the way bluegill are one of the few species that you might have a shot at breeding at least one person has managed it here. I'm working on it this summer. I put 2 males and 3 females in a tank of their own and the males have carved out spawning areas but I haven't seen any action or eggs so far. It's been about 3 weeks.

Nice, That would be cool. Wonder if they are cannibalistic towards their own eggs or fry.

Yes they are although the male will guard them initially. It's still a good idea to separate the parents from their offspring. I haven't got all this down yet so it's a work in progress for me but if you look for Brian's thread I think he's pretty much got it down.

I feed mine mostly commercial feed. I don't know what kind since I bought food from the farm in an unlabeled repackaged bag. I do feed them insects that I find and I can say first hand that they love slugs too.