Murray Cod Pics

Here are some pics of one of the murray cod and a friend the boys found in their wading pool today.

A massive 51mm dumped down last night and today! Awesome!

6 Growbeds Online

All 6 grow beds now on line. Filled the last one up with 20mm drainage and set the siphon up using 25mm poly pipe as that was what i had laying around. It doesn't drain as fast, but does drain. Planted out heaps of seedlings tonight, silverbeet, watermelon, basil, thyme, lettuce and more lettuce. Also got 2 varieties of grapes which I am keen to try in the aquaponics system. I have had one of the bigger murray's isolated in a tank in my small system and have been feeding it just worms to look at growth rate and health. Checked on it tonight and it has one big belly! Too dark for a photo but will do so hopefully tomorrow.

Murray Cod now feeding!

After a bit of mucking about with some chopped up worms, worm juice and 2mm barra feed, the cod are finally feeding!!!!!

They are now visibly feeding, not as aggressive as silvers, but some of them do hit it pretty hard. I don't use any worms and worm juice now as they seem to be eating the pellets ok. Will keep feeding at 2 tbl spoons a day and then up the feed in a week or so.

Silvers are going off in the warm water. I am now mixing the feed 2mm and 4mm and am hoping that they will be all on the 4mm in a couple of weeks. There are some that are definitely on the 4mm at close to 7-8" long, but there are a few at 5-6" long that I don't think are on to the 4mm just yet. Hoping that 2 wks at 25c+ water temp will get some size into them!

Water tests are:
pH - 7.4
Amm - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40

Got heaps of seeds in and hoping they will germinate by the end of next week. Will also buy some advanced seedlings this weekend and shove them in.

The 50 small cod fingerlings seem to be feeding, but I am finding it hard to judge the feed rate. Going at about 1/2 tsp eat feed twice a day, but I'm thinking that maybe too much so will go with 1/2 tsp a day for a week to see how it goes.

Bring on the aquaponics!!!! It's great to see when things just finally work!

Silvers feeding!

Silvers are feeding like nuts at the moment. Will try and get a photo tomorrow morning or night. Some of the murray cod have come to the top to hopefully feed. Still can't tell if they are feeding or just nudging the feed. Will starve them for 2 days and then try again, fi no go then switch to smaller feed.

Need Proof?

For those who need proof, here is a good comparison. Dirt garden watered 2 times a week (9lts) during warm weather, other than that, rain, heavily mulched with sugar cane mulch. During watering, also dosed with seasol. Aquaponics system, seasol once a month, that's it. Cauliflower in aquaponics, 1kg, dirt garden cauliflower 265grams for three. Admittedly, the smallest cauliflower could have been left for longer, but the leaves were wilting (even with watering) so time to harvest and recrop with something else.

Murray Cod!

Picked up 85 murray cod fingerlings today. 35 2-3inch cod and 50 1 inch cod. Transfered my 15 silvers into the big system and put the 50 cod into the little system to fatten them up. Hopefully all the fish go well and I don't get any deaths. Will only drop in a little feed for the silvers and cod tonight and tomorrow and up the feed in a couple of days. Water is still very cloudy but hopefully will clear up soon!

Growbeds go online!

Finally the growbeds are online! I have 4 out of 6 operational with the remaining 2 getting ready. The Yabbie tanks under the 2 non-operational grow beds need a kiddy cover before I get them cranking. Got a few trailer loads of gravel from a mate for free (big thanks Paul and Olivia) which was enough to get 5 growbeds full. Have had some plumbing issues and a few minor leaks, all of which are now fixed (touch wood). Water is very very cloudy and hopefully will clear up in a few days. Will run the pump during the day only at this stage and then 24/7 when I get the fish in there. Heaps of oxygen as I have run a bypass from the sump back into the sump and this also acts to regulate the follow into the fishtanks. Will need to increase the fish tank inflow to get the water to circulate more, but this also means that the bell siphons will have to get bigger breathers to stop the siphoning. Might do a couple of test siphons and breathers.I have 3 that work great but 1 that takes a while to stop. Will increase the flow maybe tomorrow and add bigger breathers and see how that goes.