Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

could just see a bucket full going into the tank and the lid being put back on real quick! LOL

Ok kids, i'm off to bed, out of ciggies.

Hold the fort for the people just waking up in the USA, JP

give ya lungs a rest ...

and the liver?

nah thats fine been pickled

i'm actually tame on the ethanol front. but been climbing the ciggie ladder, was always a pack of 20 a day, now i find myself eating into a second packet by about 10. Really gotta give the bastards up before it starts showing. really chain 'em when my mind is at full throttle (which explains why i'm climbing) see, now i'm looking for one!

G'nte.

I'd say you'd have to be very well setup to breed trout at home. The trout we have which are more like 15 cm long (Nic!) were 'born' early last year, they were starved of summer in kept in 20 degree tanks. Where they were loosing 4-5 a day average.

This guy to day had an 8000 L tank with maybe 150-200 trout in it. The water was 12 degrees. We couldn't remember exactly what the growth rate is but it is somewhere between 3-6 g per day so I estimated they'd get to 1 kg in about 6 months if we could keep them alive that long.

We we got home with them it was a mad dash to get the temperature down. I turned the heater off/lowest setting in he morning and it was still 21 deg. when we got home ~3:00. So every bit of ice in the house went into the tanks. It is sitting at a comfortable 12 degrees now, the bream looks a bit pissed off, but he can go back in the inside tank if it is too cold for him.

Tim, probably will be an effort to breed, but we can dream

BTW have you been to melbourne? Trust me, we aren't half as mild as you over there.

Yes, we do have some scorchers during summer, but is only a few really.

Best comparison for temps i can give is while every second house over your way that i saw has solar heating, over here is like "ohh oohhh look solar heating"

and steve chances are you'd have had winter spring and autum also in that scorching day.hehe

Rup,
Rainbows, Brown Trout and Atlantic Salmon can all live in sea water though have to return to freshwater to breed. Trout and Salmon are often raised in sea water in cages as they have a faster growth rate in that environment as well as much better eating qualities. Many fish stocked into rivers in WA and TAS (not sure about the east coast) end up living in the estuarys as there is often a greater food source there.

Steve you are right in that trout are a very hardy fish and in many ways I have found them to be hardier than the Silver Perch. Their main weakness where most of us are located is their temperature tolerances. As far as disease goes I have had Silver Perch with white spot in the same tanks as trout yet the trout remained unaffected!! Every year I have the occassional Perch die for no apparent reason but the only trout losses (apart from water temps) I have experienced is when they have jumped out of the tank. I have my tanks netted though every now and then one seems to leap out through a hole in the netting.

As for optimum temps for growth anywhere between 10 and 20c is perfect which should enable most people the chance to get the fish to eating size before the water warms up too much.

As for breeding, Trout spawn between May (Brown Trout) through to Sept (late spawning Rainbows) in the southern hemisphere. The hard part with trying to breed trout is that the eggs have a long incubation period (around 6 weeks compared to 36hrs for Silver Perch) and often succumb to fungus over this period.

good info

Actually ours are 15cm lol sorry my bad

Well they are a big fish for fingerings i think they are into there juvenile stages now. When breeding trout would you need to artificially raise the young? Like scoop out the eggs?

Also troutman can you post up some pics of your trout tanks?

Nc here you should find a photo of troutmans set up.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... &start=660
its a little down the page.

Trout man, i'll be looking to you for guidance with the trout, so keep and eye on this thread and "steves old mans system" too!

Will post an update regarding jumping fish on that thread now.

Troutman, will rainbows stop feeding when they are full? i've fed the 30 fish about two handfulls this morning and they show no signs of being satisfied.