Aquaponics

[politicalcenter]

We are not doing an aquaponic system but we are raising fish. We bought fingerling catfish and some bluegill and we lost a lot of gills. It may have been too early in the year or the temporary tank we put the bluegill in was too small. We had Koi and goldfish in there bur they did fine.

Anyway, we went fishing yesterday for some more gills because it is too far to travel to get more and I don't want to waste any more money on them. I put an old trash can on the back of my pickup and headed out to the river and as usual we caught a bunch of bluegill under "keeper" size. We put them in a bucket and then transferred them to the trash can to keep them breathing. No floaters yet and they are bigger than the fingerling you buy.

We used a number 10 hook and red-worms. We put them in one of the bigger pools this time.

Also got my cement block pond fixed. It no longer leaks...and it was cheap...like me. I painted the whole thing with clay kitty liter mixed with water. Then I threw some sugar sand on top of it. It worked! I now have a pond to store water and grow plants. I will put a couple of goldfish in it too keep the bugs down.


I am glad the miracle grow helped. Right now i raising some arrowhead (Saggitaria Latiflora) from seed.

 

[3goodeggs]

The blue pickerel weed (Pontedaria) is beautiful too, and does well.

The saggittaria will grow quite well from rhizomes. I have to remove it often or it takes over.

 

[RichnSteph]

We are not doing an aquaponic system but we are raising fish. We bought fingerling catfish and some bluegill and we lost a lot of gills. It may have been too early in the year or the temporary tank we put the bluegill in was too small. We had Koi and goldfish in there bur they did fine.

Anyway, we went fishing yesterday for some more gills because it is too far to travel to get more and I don't want to waste any more money on them. I put an old trash can on the back of my pickup and headed out to the river and as usual we caught a bunch of bluegill under "keeper" size. We put them in a bucket and then transferred them to the trash can to keep them breathing. No floaters yet and they are bigger than the fingerling you buy.

We used a number 10 hook and red-worms. We put them in one of the bigger pools this time.

Also got my cement block pond fixed. It no longer leaks...and it was cheap...like me. I painted the whole thing with clay kitty liter mixed with water. Then I threw some sugar sand on top of it. It worked! I now have a pond to store water and grow plants. I will put a couple of goldfish in it too keep the bugs down.


I am glad the miracle grow helped. Right now i raising some arrowhead (Saggitaria Latiflora) from seed.

We're going fishing for three days starting tomorrow morning and are planning on bringing back as many perch as we can for our system. I've tried for weeks to buy some locally with no luck. Now if I wanted tilapia or koi I could get them delivered.

Glad to hear you got the other pond sealed up!

 

[politicalcenter]

We're going fishing for three days starting tomorrow morning and are planning on bringing back as many perch as we can for our system. I've tried for weeks to buy some locally with no luck. Now if I wanted tilapia or koi I could get them delivered.

Glad to hear you got the other pond sealed up!

Thank you. I was going to go with Tilapia but it gets too cold here in the winter and I don't like tilapia as well as catfish and bream.

Just make sure you can get enough O2 in the tank you haul them in so they don't die on ya. What we did was keep a five gallon bucket to put them in when caught and transferred them to a large garbage can full of water in the back of the pickup. But we weren't gone for three days.

And every time I put the fish in the can I also put just a little ice in...not much...just a little because I didn't want the water to get too warm. Cool water holds more O2 than warm water. If you have a fish cage to keep the fish in the water until you leave... even better.

I found that a small fish basket is too small and it injures the fish in transport.

Good luck!!!! and good fishing!!!

 

[politicalcenter]

The blue pickerel weed (Pontedaria) is beautiful too, and does well.

The saggittaria will grow quite well from rhizomes. I have to remove it often or it takes over.

I have some pickerel weed and it grows pretty fast too!

It was the only plant I bought that actually grew. We dug up another plant that looks good (for now) but I have no idea what it is.

I am thinking about putting a sign up next year and selling pond plants. Nobody else does it.`


PS If you dug near the roots on the arrowheads in the spring a lot of large seeds are there.

 

[RichnSteph]

Thank you. I was going to go with Tilapia but it gets too cold here in the winter and I don't like tilapia as well as catfish and bream.

Just make sure you can get enough O2 in the tank you haul them in so they don't die on ya. What we did was keep a five gallon bucket to put them in when caught and transferred them to a large garbage can full of water in the back of the pickup. But we weren't gone for three days.

And every time I put the fish in the can I also put just a little ice in...not much...just a little because I didn't want the water to get too warm. Cool water holds more O2 than warm water. If you have a fish cage to keep the fish in the water until you leave... even better.

I found that a small fish basket is too small and it injures the fish in transport.

Good luck!!!! and good fishing!!!

Thanks! The fishing was amazing. We caught enough catfish to feed 14 adults and a handful of kids in just a few hours on Saturday. Sunday wasn't as good since we were fishing during a tornado watch and had to stop early. We didn't catch any perch but I was able to transport 7 catfish back to the house and put them in the pond. One didn't make it but the others are doing well. We now have six 3-4lb catfish in our system.

 

[RichnSteph]

Oh and some great news here on the AP front. Our pond/beds finally ran through a complete cycle and our 700+ gallon pond is almost crystal clear! I can see the bottom and the fish swimming in there. Even our plants are doing better.

 

[3goodeggs]

 

[lazy gardener]

How exciting. AP is on my bucket list, even if just a small 10 gal. system in my basement to play around with. It gets so cold here that it wouldn't be practical in my small house to attempt much more, but... perhaps when I retire, I can invest some effort into more of a greenhouse/AP system. A girl can always dream! I was excited to hear someone catching local fish to use in their AP system. Any thoughts in that regard about how to avoid disease and parasites in the fish if you bring them in from local stock???

 

[politicalcenter]

Thanks! The fishing was amazing. We caught enough catfish to feed 14 adults and a handful of kids in just a few hours on Saturday. Sunday wasn't as good since we were fishing during a tornado watch and had to stop early. We didn't catch any perch but I was able to transport 7 catfish back to the house and put them in the pond. One didn't make it but the others are doing well. We now have six 3-4lb catfish in our system.

That's great! Just a word about catfish leaned the hard way.

Don't move them....just make sure they stay where you put them. Moving them seems to bring about floaters.

And I also had to make my own net. I used the 1/2 hardware cloth (plastic) and an old net frame so the fins don't get stuck in the net if I have to net them.

We went out and got a few more bluegill.. lost a couple and fed them to the pigs.