Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

When we used to raise guppies and swordtails in our aquariums we used a little net cage to seperate the preggers females until delivery, then we would transfer momma out of the nursery and back into the group tank. (Momma fish will eat thier young too, it is just that the males are usually the first ones to go after them in the group tanks.) If you wanted to work on raising the young you could set up a seperate tank for the females during the time of delivery and then transfer them back. If you need to you can use thin, gauze like nylon (I think dressmakers call it "Illusion") or fiberglass screen wire on simple wooden frames to form seperate areas in your tank to segregate the females and the just hatched young from the others.

Hope my brain dead idea helps.

Kevin

AM, it hit me if you are still having a problem with a lack of "nutrients" you could always bring a little "home work" back with you. Just make sure the jar it is in is nicely sealed, and that you don't put it into the same sack as your PB&J (or Vegamite) sandwich!

Kevin

I used to keep 5 fishtank when i was a teen.. many years ago now... guppies are easy.... i want to do neon tetra's!

LOL - that wouldb e a bit of a sad mix up


You will need to cotrole water temp and ph closely (and have a near empty tank with loads of stone in the bottom as they lay egges and will readily eat them ) My dad bred them (before I was on the scene) and said that he would cover the sides of the tank in cardboard so as to give them privacy(they would not breed with a lot of movement around their tank- I guess they are shy ).

I've done dummer things in my life.

Kevin

Neons can also lay upto 130 eggs... not a bad investment for only 2 fish huh...

lets just say you lost 30... that leaves 100

Now even if you could sell them for .50c each... thats still $50.00

I want to do just tetra's, different breeds etc... but only work on 1 species..l oh that and guppies hehe

A nice way to suppliment an AP system you think?

We could try using bath tubs - water would be deep enough - just would have to have fly screen over it... simply cover the bottom with river washed stones and plant it heavily with plants such a vallis... there are ways of doing all of this... by sinking the tubs in the ground you would be able to control the temp of the water easier too...

looks like im going to have some competition
Good thing you are all interstate/overseas =)

only 5? lol, yeah guppies are easy



I want to conquer comleteng the lifecycle one species at a time, i like a challenge =)

this weekend I set up one of the bathtubs which was supposed to become a GB as an above ground pond to house guppies/sword tails etc. . ... then we will hopefully get some guppies (the wild ones from the streams around Cairns) to stock it - not only will we be raising live food for the barra, but if they turn out all colourful we would sell them on to make money for feed for the barra etc. as well... then there is also the side of letting kids use the guppies to power small systems in the school AP area

Oh yes, that rebinds me, we have yet another addict starting next term. Another young fellow asked yesterday if he could start up a small ap system - one by one we will convert the heathen masses over to AP

guppies!

tough little buggers they are! We will put in loads of structures so that the fry can hide away and breed up faster!

Besides the tilapia and goldies I have been growing up several species of Cichlids in a wheelie bin. And during the Christmas holidays many others that I sourced for school hang around in my backyard tubs. Examples are Electric yellows, Maingano's, green chromides. green terrors, Lab freibergi juvis, Tangerine Zebra, to name a few. Apparently all breed fairly easily given good conditions and can be worth a few dollars when they get to a reasonable size.

I haven't had any of them breed yet apart from the tilapia. But I guess it is cos I havn't put down much in the way of hidey hole places. I think old coffeee mugs are quite good in this respect, so I may shove some in over the weekend. Or maybe some old plastic mugs or stacked plastic tubes fixed to some sort of frame might be a good idea, something that can be lifted in an out really easily in one go.

With the cichlids it is pretty important to keep the stock fairly pure, and subspecies or closely related species should be kept separate if breeding for a few dollars, else crossbred "mongrels" result. And these are frowned on by the enthusiasts and are worthless other than being feeder fish.

Well - if we ever end up breeding the same things, maybe we can do blood line swaps - or is that not needed so much in fish breeding?

Bloodline swaps are important for fish, VB. Many tilapia lines are inbred, resulting in deformities. Some of my fish have malformed mouths, for example.