Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I had a tomato plant in my DWC bed that had roots 2 metres long when I pulled it out

Someting you will have keep an eye on always some thing happening with aquaponic systems

Cucs look fantastic

Hello everyone. Experimenting with some new lights for the new season. Hopefully this will help my seedlings get stronger before I plug them into this system. Looking to have a big year! Now it just needs to stop snowing!!


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Worse case your seedlings will be well acclimatised to the lighting at a rock concert , less the strobe and glitter gun

Sorry had to go there...

I hope they do well mate, cold climates definately are hard going for this particular past time. Here's to a great year ahead

P.S. I have only just rediscovered pages 2-5 of the emoji's. Look out forum. This post is a four, if you don't count the duplicates, and bad humor. 5.

Quick update on what’s happening in my world.
Peppers are doing great. I have more than expected for old seeds.

The bluegill seem to be happy and healthy and getting big.


And after getting the system filled up the newest addition 54 Crappie.



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Wow just looked at my post and those pictures are giant! Anyone else posting from an Iphone? What size image do you choose when posting??

Let’s see how this one looks


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Ok let’s try this again. Quick update on what’s going on.


Peppers and cucumbers coming along nicely.



Bluegill seem to be healthy and getting big.



And after filling up the system the newest addition 54 crappie!



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Cool.

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Hello! How long have your bluegill been in the system?
They are beautiful, and look like they are a pretty good size!

I've been experimenting with some bluegill, green sunfish, and channel cats.
The bluegill and sunfish grow very slow for me, and go off the feed during cooler weather.
The catfish keep eating. A little less when it's cooler, but they have been growing really fast.

I love your hoop house!

LA Will

The blue gill have been in for 2 years. I caught them at a local lake so I started with all different sizes. I bought the crappie from a local fishery to get all the same size and test their growth.


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LA Will, I also grow bluegill (and have been for years) and what you've seen is what most others have. Some have done better with bluegill but they don't seem to grow very fast. Yellow Perch and catfish grow faster and if they are legal in your state they are a good choice. Bluegill do a good job of keeping the snail population down when they can get at them so there are some advantages to having them. One of the other forum members, Brian (user name - bcotton), has done quite a bit with Bluegill so you might want to look for his thread.

Bluegill definitely get pickier when it gets colder out and seem to eat intermittently here in our mild winter (western oregon). You'll have better luck if the feed sinks, they don't like to come to the surface. Below about 55F they won't eat much and your bacteria won't be processing waste very well so feed infrequently and feed very little. They do sometimes eat below this temperature but they don't need much.

I had much better survival rates with bluegill than catfish - they're tough fish. I think yellow perch might be my choice if they were an option here but they aren't legal here AFAIK.

Ok, my sunfish were different sizes too, and they've been in their a little over a year. My biggest one is 6-7 inches.
I'd be interested to try some hybrid bluegill, I think they are a mix of sunfish and bluegill, but nobody around here has them at the fish farms.
The Crappie look really cool. I have never had the opportunity to eat one! They aren't so common around here either. When I was a kid, I recall they used to stock them in a few lakes. Now they mostly stock trout in the winter, channel catfish, summer. There are lots of residual feral fish from older times. A lot of waters around here have bluegill, carp, sunfish, bass, bullhead, tilapia (limited). Some have other pet releases, like cichlids, plecos, dojo eels, and pacu.
I think looking to the wild to see what survives with little fuss is a great idea.
The LA river used to have a native trout and steelhead population, but the last one was caught around 1945, right round the time they channelized most of it.
Scotty,
I don't know if yellow perch are available around here, but there are Sacramento perch, which supposedly are delicious, and one fish farm breeds them, but not consistently.

I don't mean to highjack your thread! Just wanted to post a pic of the LA river where the river wouldn't allow them to pave.There are a lot of fish in there, no trout though. A lot of trash too, especially after a heavy rain. There's a movement to restore it so the trout can come back....we'll see.

So a question for all of you seasoned green thumbs out there. Why do my plants look like this? I have supplemented iron and potassium.



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