Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This post is for anybody out there that still does not believe that worms thrive in flood and drain aquaponics grow-beds.

I added about 5 composting worms to my system when I first set it up 15 or 16 months ago.

I took these pictures tonight when I pulled out a whole heap of mustard and endive plants which I was not really eating - to save on the transpiration that was resulting due to the days being very hot and my GB being in the full sun.

Was going to bring it up on my weekly update but now is a good time:

I removed some lettuce and other stuff about to cark it and although I didn't have as many worms as shown by vb, the root balls had worms and capsules...I cut off the root base and plonked it in the newer GBs I hadn't seeded with worms as yet

there is medication for this problem VB

Blindly had a dig about in the tank tonight with my fish friendly net that Les got me.

Managed to catch one huge Jade (pretty sure its a Jade - but will look at it again in the light of day) and a couple of smallish but still well and trully edible Silvers. Have chucked them in the fingerling tank that is attached to the one that has my barra fingerlings in it. They can purge here. I intend to try smoking at least one of the silvers (whole) and maybe one of the filets off the Jade. Jeez those jades have a lot of flesh on them when they get to a good size. I shit you not that looking down on the fish the thing is at least 6cm wide at the shoulders (I estimate :-/).

I've also pulled four of my five remaining feeder gold fish (that cycled the system 18 months ago) out of the system and into a 50 litre tank. The intention is to try and sex them and then have a go at getting a batch of fry (just for fun).

I'll probably start seperate thread on the goldies and one for the smoking experiment.

the jades get really broad don't they? enjoy!

Fish in the big system were off their food today - probably due to all the stress of the netting last night. Was a bit concerned they may be all dead at the bottom of tank - because I took the airstone out yesterday to provide air to the purge tank (but I've still got a venturi in the tank as well as all the waterfall aeration in the sump - so thought is unlikely). Anyway - put my net through the tank and no dead fish, but decided I'd try and net a couple more silvers to smoke next weekend. Gave up on the fish friendly net (too slow in the water to catch fish) and used the old style green netting fishing net - like yours Jaymie). Funny thin was that I only managed to net one silver - eventhough I netted fish time and time again, all being jades. This is a bit weird, because there should be at least 7 big silvers in the tank (given that there are 2 in the purge tank and I had 9 big ones to start with). I did also catch one very small silver - but it would be the dodgy silver that was left from a batch of feeder fish silvers that I bought right at the beginning of my experiments with AP.

What is the reason for this - I can only think of five possibles:

1. Silvers are just too bloody fast for the net - this is certainly possible, though I did manage to catch 2 last night, and that was with the slow net.
2. The silvers have perished at some point - unlikely because they were pretty big and I have never had any carcasses.
3. Some bastard has stolen them - no chance.
4. The silvers I bought were not silvers at all, but were jades - this is possible, but I'm quite sure they were in fact silvers.
5. A number of the fish I netted were silvers, but I thought they were Jades - this is certainly possible, because not all my jades have distinctive spots and I was going mainly from the shape. I didn't count the dorsal fin spines - but will do this next time I net (what are the numbers again Jaymie :-))

My money is on 1 or 5. Anyone care for a wager?

BTW - one more silver in the purge tank now - so have 3 silvers and a jade to play with in my smoking experiment.

I'll get back to you on the numbers

okay, I've done a bit more reading and have found that silvers and jades are from the same family and so have the same number of spines (It seemed like a good idea at the time) sorry VB.

Axl thinks that even when the silvers are larger they are not as round as the jades. I haven't seen enough of each yet to test this theory. He thinks the silvers are more streamlined. From memory, Les' silvers looked slimmer than our jades at a similar length.

Goodone Jaymie - so much for all that counting of your photos. U know that this means that me and Steve were probably right about that fish of yours being a silver

Forgot to mention - I think I've accounted for another of the silvers. I have decided that the big fella in the purge tank is probably a silver. Will get a better look at him when I take him out and kill him - but I'd put some bucks on it right now.

A wager: No, just giving some creedence to 2.
If you have a nice system with fish fed 'enough' food, the greedy ones can often devour a dead collegue of their own size in 24 - 48 hours.

Rarely has it happened with such large fish, but I have oft had fish missing, and sometimes seen the cartoon like 'skeleton the the cat has just sucked clean' in the tank. This could be because I keep bottom feeders in all my tanks, and they tend to eat anything they can latch onto. But maybe huh?

I had the idea to build a frame the same size as the footpring of my IBCs and build a net onto the frame and leave it in the tank permanently, when I want fish, just pull t up, and when there's too little room for them to swim without bumping into each other, I pick out the ones I want.

of course this idea is completely untested ans my system is not yet runniing


KudaPucat
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The Pale Horse Rides Again

KP - thought about that, but no skeletons in my system, but you never know heh.

Have thought about the false bottom thing also KP - I reckon it would want to be a smooth thick plastic mesh, like trelis. Anything else may damage fish while on the bottom or else when raising to catch fish. Another idea is a moverable vertical barrier to get all the fish into a small section. Les has made one of these for his round tank.

how about the closet VB?LOL

I shoulda said 'no fish skeletons'