Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,
I don't have a aquaponics system but am thinking up a type of system I can use and fish species that would be suitable for my area, Ayers Rock, NT. I have extensive knowledge in hydroponics and being a horticulturist I don't really need to know anything about what to plant. But what maybe helpfull is what food crops would be suitable to feed barra if any.
I would really like to use barra, just want to know if they would be suitable. I have a 1m x 1m Flood and drain table and I was going to fill with expanded clay balls and use a similar size kiddie pool or such as a fish pond.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. It gets max 50 degrees Celcius sometimes here in summer will this be a problem for barra or will i need to shade the pond or cool it ?
Thankyou for your help and be glad to hear from some other territorians.
Brendan

Hey Brendan, Welcome.

IMHO shading or cover of some description is a must. Joel has had barra in quite cool conditions in perth with success and other have them, see nick system. Soundslike the clay balls tend to float in a flood cycle. Cover the system helps keep the levels right ie no rain getting in to overflow it etc.
check out this link, it has some useful info
www.pir.sa.gov.au/byteserve/aquaculture ... rra_fs.pdf

i reckon a good 80% of my clay balls sink. some straight away, other over a long time

you dont want that water getting that hot! Barra can tolerate rather warm water, but try keep it in the low thirties

Thanks for that link monya, very interesting. Hopefully i don't need a permit in NT to have barra mainly because they are indiginious (how do you spell that) to NT typically most of the kiddie pool (pond) would be underneath the flood drain table its on a stand about 500mm off the ground and i would cover the pond with a couple of layers of shade cloth. For aeriation do you think i could just run the system all day and night so water is continully flowing thus oxenegating or would i resort to a few air stones just to be on the safe side. Do any of you guys / gals have barra if so what do you feed them ?
cheers
brendan

I have barra in my system and they are doing well (and have even eaten some of my other fish )...
I have been given abou 4 to 5kg of feed from Ridley, and the Barra soon gobbel them up! I tried earthworm, but they did not even look at them!

Just check with the DPI&F as to permits - should not need one if you are doing it as food for yourself and have no intention of selling them...

And the kiddy pool - due to realy odd laws, because it was designed for human use it will have to be fencesd (which is a good idea anyways)

yeah i know about the fence part , i have a 7 month daughter anyway so fencing this off is one a my major prioritys anyway, soon she will be walking and look out. As for the feed "Ridley" is this something you buy at the pet shop or a more commerical feed that fish farms use, just wana know because im sure it would determine what the fish taste like.

there are a few threads on this site which deal with various feeds - some your wife should never know about and others common and from the shop... just do a search

ridley aqua feeds are commercial products, the same people that make chook pellets and stuff.

I have had my system running 24/7 to provide oxygenation via water return