Not much room & form trumps function! Salad tonight anyway!

Loser

Dangerous Dave wrote:

Thanks Loser.

Definitely no problems with cold water up here in sub-tropical Northern NSW. And I salted the tank after I saw that fish a few weeks ago. But, as best I could tell, the salinity was 2 ppt in the first place.

Anyway, have had no further deaths in that tank. I harvested two SP and two Murray cod last week and they all looked very healthy - and tasted pretty good too! But I didn't examine the gills or look for spots quite as closely as I will next time.

I've recently added about 10 small jade perch. The remaining SP and the new JP are all eating well and look fine from a distance. Will keep my fingers crossed.

I'll keep an eye on the other thread and will chime in if I have any bright ideas.

Glad to hear your fish recovered. I have about another 4-5 or so that look terrible at the moment. Big chunks missing out of their sides. They are still swimming okay for the moment though.
I thought about taking them out and euthenising them, but they might come good. We'll see!

Dangerous Dave

boss wrote:

I didn't know about taking a sample from near the bottom

Thanks Boss.

I'm not sure about taking a sample from the bottom of the tank, if that's what you mean. I was referring to reading the hydrometer ignoring the meniscus as it floats in the sample.

Apologies if I misunderstand you.

D

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Dangerous Dave

No more deaths. All fish eating well (weather is hot and water warm). Have just moved the last of the jade perch that overwintered in my small system. The JPs are still much smaller than the handful of much older silver perch they share the tank with, but it's the JP that smash the pellets even before I close the lid on my tank.

I have an abundance of chillies - cold smoked a few the other day and they went very well in a smoked chilli Margarita. Tomatoes, eggplant and corn also doing well... along with the usual leafy greens and herbs. And kangkong really loves the heat

Main reason for this post is to record my first harvest of one of the eel tailed catfish (tandanus tandanus) that has been in my system from day one.

Was only 34 cm and just under 500 grams - I'm confident that her (she was full of eggs) surviving tank mates are all a fair bit bigger but she was the one I netted in a sump tank with awkward access.

TT's aren't that attractive to look at - as you'll see below. But I've become fond of my catfish over the years. They always come to the surface when I approach the tank - and would take food from my hands if I wasn't wary of their poisonous pectoral and dorsal spines. They're slow growing though... 4 years to get to 500 grams.

Will skin her tomorrow and then decide on a recipe... unless anyone has any tips.

boss

Cool! She isn't a looker is she? I'd like to see one with the tail showing. Or is that the tail in front of her? I've got some albino Channel Cats in my outdoor system, which I believe are going on two years old. They are still 22cm. What are you feeding yours?

Dangerous Dave

Hi Brian

She tasted much better than she looked :thumbleft:

You can see her tail in the photo. There's not much to it. The thing you see underneath is the back of a Murray cod. The full photo (two cod and one catfish) is in my other thread.

They're fed the same native fish food (floating pellets) I feed my native perch and murray cod.

Here's a picture of an eel tailed catfish... https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/spec ... ed-catfish . We have related species all over the country.

Happy New Year (in a few hours) to you and family...

Dangerous Dave

No photos of the growbeds posted in 2017. So I'll get in early in 2018. We've had a lot of rain recently and most of the corn has been damaged by the rain or pests. But greens including sweet potato and kangkong doing very well. Also tomatoes, chillies and eggplant.

joblow

All looking very good Dave. :thumbright:

How did you go with the Aesthetics Consultant on any future system expansions?. :think:

Dangerous Dave

joblow wrote:

All looking very good Dave. :thumbright:

How did you go with the Aesthetics Consultant on any future system expansions?. :think:

Hi and thanks joblow

Things are ticking along nicely. Recent picture attached. Will harvest last of my silver perch this weekend. Jade perch have grown heaps over summer. I can probably eat a few over winter.

Having raised Murray cod. Next challenge for me will probably be trout or Barra. My aesthetics consultant might be able to be persuaded wrt expansion. But time is limited and I find much of it is taken up by other hobbies of late. Things like sourdough bread and growing roasting and brewing my own coffee.

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joblow

It's all looking great there Dave, and good to hear your last of your Silver Perch are all heading for the plate and freezer.

The Jade Perch would go well up there, it's too cold for them down here. I found the Silver Perch & Tandanus Catfish very slow growing down here, and it wasn't 2 years to get any size on them, it was closer to 4 years. During winter they didn't eat all that well so I've given up on those guys and now gone for Rainbow Trout.

They are a much better fish to grow in the colder water temps we have during winter down here, and they are a lot more fun to feed than Silver Perch.

Dave have a go at the Trout if you water temps are cool enough, you'll enjoy feeding them.

That growing, roasting and brewing your own coffee sounds like it would fun, I don't think coffee would grow down here or I'd have a crack at it, I can't survive without coffee, I just love my coffee.

boss

Absolutely stunning backyardaquaponics system. Wow and coffee too, man you win!

Dangerous Dave

Thanks boss. Our subtropical climate makes the coffee possible. But it'll be a challenge if I try my hand at trout.

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Dangerous Dave

Looking for some advice...

Things have been quiet on the aquaponic front recently. Water is cold so fish not eating much and neighour's house is casting deep shade on my growbeds most of the day. All has been ticking along OK and I've had lots of time for other hobbies.

But I just discovered that one of my 4 yo eel tailed (tandanus) catfish has died and another looks unwell. The 2nd catfish is on its side on the bottom of the tank and just about motionless apart from some gill movement. The first fish, apart from being dead, looked plump and healthy.

The rest of my fish (1 catfish, 1 Murray Cod and a few silver and jade perch) are sluggish...water is 14.1 C in middle of the afternoon. But they look pretty good and are eating about what I would expect at this temperature.

Fairly confident it's not the cold... they survived colder spells last year. The photo below shows a lesion... looks a lot like one I found on a perch (same system but different tank) last October viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22374&start=30#p559287. There was conjecture that it was a fungal disease (Saprolegnia). This seemed odd because the water was warm in October and I understand that fungus likes it cold. Either way, I've not seen any obvious fungus on my fish (then or now).

I've salted the water and won't feed for a few days. But would be grateful for any advice.

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scotty435

Looks like a infected wound injury and probably not systemic but I'm not an expert.

Dangerous Dave

Thanks Scotty. That's reassuring. Will keep a close eye on the rest and report back if further trouble.

Dangerous Dave

Another dead catfish today... just a bit bigger than the last one and also looking mostly healthy.

All other fish in the system seem fine. No indication of fungus. And I'm now hoping that they just died of old age... reports of lifespan are variable but range from 5 to 10 years. Mine are just a bit short of the 5 year mark.

But, if you have any expertise in these things, please see photos of the dead fish. There's a lesion in similar locations on both sides of the head - just above and in front of the gills. Those lesions were definitely present while the fish was still alive.

The fin and surrounding area on the L side of the head looks a bit red/bloody... and there's a very small hole just in front of the fin (hard to see in photo). I can't say if that hole and the damage around the fin is post mortem... could be... there's a good sized murray cod on the tank who might have had a go. Finally, in case someone has had similar experience, I saw one or two small things crawling on the skin of the fish after I removed it from the tank. Looked like tiny crustaceans (no photo... wasn't quick enough). I can't be sure they came out of the water but I did wonder if they might have made that hole.

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