Aquaponics - Silver Perch update

I recently ran out of fish feed, so I've been hand feeding them worms, and what ever they call fly larvae in whatever part of the world you live.  They are called "gents" here when bought as bait, or stored in a fridge shared with people who don't want maggots in their fridge. "Maggots" when found in smelly stuff.

The point is, as a result of feeding them live food like worms, gents, and caterpillars, they are venturing a bit further up the water column to the point where they are now easy to photograph.

This guy is pretty big.

And heavy looking.

It looks like this up close.

I have no idea how big or how heavy it is, but I'll try to get a photo next to a ruler.

I wont try to weigh it because I cant think of a way to do it without stressing it.

I'll weigh it if I ever eat it.



120 Things in 20 years - Sometimes your aquaponics silver perch get quite big when you're not looking.

Aquaponics - Sacrificial plants

In my aquaponics system, I grow a sacrificial plant, who's only purpose in my garden is as a caterpillar attractor.

As generous as that might seem, it might be worth noting that the fish like to eat them, and as long as they stay on my caterpillar attractor they are easy to find. 

The plant is called Senposai, or at least it is in my garden store, and claims to be a Japanese green.

I have no idea if it tastes good, because before I get to eat any of it, everything else does.

So I grow it now to keep everything else from eating everything else.

It works a treat as a sacrificial plant.

It looks like this.

It seems those big, round, green leaves are irresistible to creatures that like to place caterpillars into gardens.

Since I've been growing it I've never had a caterpillar on anything else.

Ever.

I haven't had a lot of caterpillars, but I've had enough to conclude that they love this stuff.

Another advantage, is that the fish seem to love it as well. When I see a leaf with caterpillar holes in it I just rip it off and throw it into the fishtank. The fish go crazy for the caterpillars, then peck away at the leaf until its just a stem.

The stem even floats, making it convenient to lift out and drop into the compost bucket.

I love the stuff and will always grow it.

I just don't think I'll ever get to eat it.




not just Aquaponics - Sacrificial plants - 120 things in 20 years

Aquaponics - Silver perch eating lettuce

I finally managed to get some video of my fish eating lettuce.

I left the camera running for hours and eventually got a few hits. They seem to eat a lot of it overnight, but hardly touch it during the day. Perhaps it draws too much attention to themselves.

Here is all the feeding I managed to capture from all those hours of footage. The first scene doesn't really catch them feeding, but I like it so I left it in. There was a lot of footage where they spent time hanging around under the lettuce as they did in the first scene. Perhaps the water tastes nice under the lettuce.

Aquaponics - Duckweed

Duckweed!

I finally got hold of some. I've been looking around for it for ages, but all the plant stores stock a plant that isn't really duckweed. Every single nursery I've been to has assured me over the phone that they stock the real deal, but have all turned out to have something else.

I guess I should mention that the reason I wanted the stuff is because fish eat it. Its a great way to get rid of excess nutrient, and is also a useful feed because it floats so doesn't get sucked into the pump before the fish get a chance to eat it.

It looks like this. At least I hope it does. All plants look the same to me.

Duckweed has some claim to fame. I'm told it produces the smallest flower. But I wasn't told it makes three of them, so I guess there is good reason to doubt it's record holding status as well.

Who knows.

I have duckweed.


As far as I can tell duckweed normally reproduces asexually by dividing into two leaves. If you look at the picture, you can see some leaves almost look ready to divide. Many of the leaves have two roots extending ten or fifteen millimetres into the water. I'm guessing when the leaf decides into two, each half gets a root. I'm told that it also does the pollination thing from time to time, but who knows.

I have duckweed!

I put some into a large container with some fish emulsion as fertilizer. After a day or two I noticed an oil slick, so I  added an air stone attached to a small fish tank air pump. The slick cleared up within a few hours, and the duckweed took on a healthier shade of bright green. I know there isn't a lot of science in that, but I'm guessing duckweed needs oxygenated water. I was hoping to just keep it in a container of water with a large surface area, throw in some goat dung, and leave it to it's own devices, but I don't think it's going to be as simple as that.

The plan is to use the original planned growbed with pvc edge capping for a duckweed plantation. The growbed was too easily scratched to use with gravel in it, but filled with only water and duckweed, it should be fine.



I kept it for five days before giving it to them because I was concerned the pond it came from could have had some diseased or parasite infested fish.

I only know a small amount about one fish ailment other than poison plants, and that is a parasite called Ich. Ich is a fish parasite that can't live away from fish for more than three days, so at least my five days should prevent it from being an issue.