Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi EB,
It`s a kind of pulse.
They end up about 1/4" in diameter when cooked and pretty much the colour of wet hydroton. You have to freeze it after it`s cooked otherwise you can`t get the hook into it... tv dinner for fish maybe?
I think it`s used as a winter feed for horses too but we used to catch some nice roach with it.

It seems it could be the seeds from Common Vetch (Vicia sativa L.) but don`t quote me on that

Here`s a pic and some cooking info
http://www.go-fish.co.uk/previoustips_4409.htm

Think they might be maggots EB.

TT
Those trout that you can get for 20c each would have only hatched out recently. Unfortunately you wont be able to get them to edible size before summer and they probably wont be much bigger than a minnow by then.
Options are: cool the water somehow over the summer period or wait til autumn to buy the fish as most others here have done.

Thanks Troutman. If i decide to go with them, i would be targetting say a 350 gram size for Good Friday at some local hotels next year. Is this a feasible time frame for that target weight, perhaps even happy with 300gram by then?

To achieve maximum growth over the summer period you will have to keep water temps below 20c. If you can do that and feed them high protein food it would be possible to get some of them to that size by Easter.

WENT OUT TO BUY 25 TROUT @$2 EACH ,100mm long, they had 700 in their system and all died the night before!! Pump failure.Very sad to see!

What are you going to do with 25 dead trout?

cheap to feed

ouch, obviously no power or air back up. Gotta get that in my system. Don't want nasty surprises in the mornings.

tt, have you got an aquaculture license?

Wongutha CAPS ,supposedly had backup system ,but didnt work! Know the feeling!

stepping very quietly there Mon. I have heard it said that one could supply local hotels direct on a cash basis sans license. If i was not the law abiding citizen that i am, given i will only be producing a few hundred fish per year, that would be a highly attractive option.

I have also spoken to the largest seafood wholesaler in town here about supplying him. He requires us to be licensed to cover his own butt which is fine.

Start my course 2moro and will be up to speed on the finer details very shortly i hope.

A word of caution (quietly)... some states require a license for the actual transportation of live fish from one place to another....

If this were to happen, the travel distance is allegedly less than a kilometre. I am told the hotel would not require paperwork. Apparently the fish could be delivered fresh/whole/frozen, allegedly.

As i am a law abiding citizen i would not want to be seen to be doing the wrong thing. Don't need any start up fubars ruining what may develop later on.

A backup pump is probably worth it`s weight in gold in those sort of situations, that`s a lot of fish to lose

Trout prices do seem quite reasonable here, 4" rainbows cost £0.42 each $1 Aus and 10" monsters for $3 Aus.
I bet there`s a minimum order of a few thousand ..still waiting for an email.