Fingerlings in Melbourne

[wey2go]

Hi! Just found this website which advertises that they can supply fingerlings for Barramundi, Golden Perch and Murray Cod. They are in Melbourne (Werribee).

http://www.mainaqua.com.au/comm_aqua.html

I have not dealt with them before but thought this information can be useful for member of this forum in Melbourne.

[newenthuse]

:) Thankyou for this - still at the research stage, and have been having trouble finding suppliers - I will check it out!!!!

[wey2go]

Hi! Are you in Melbourne?

I have bought Silver Perch fingerlings before from http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/

However, what was shipped to me were mixed sizes between 1 cm to 4 cm. At least half were between 1 - 2 cms. I am not sure whether it is their usual practice to send out mixed sizes in one order. I bought 300 from them.

I have since got in touch with http://www.ausyfish.com/
They only ship out fingerlings between 4 - 5 cms. They said that they will have Silver Perch fingerlings available for the next few months.

The bigger fingerlings are easier to feed and take care of.

[newenthuse]

hi Wey2go,

I am actually in Bacchus Marsh - halfway between Melbourne & Ballarat. Not quite at the fish stock stage - major hurdle is the clean up of the area i'll use to set it up - might have to hire a dingo for the day to start with.... Thanks for the info. i am finding this forum an invaluable source of info!! Have you got your system set up? What are you using for the fish tank & grow beds? Still not sure what i'll use yet.... Would love to have it all going tomorrow, but it'll take a while - i'm hoping to use the winter to set up, and be ready for summer.
thanks again for the links!!

Nicci

[newenthuse]

Hi again,

I found this place the other day that sells fingerlings as well -
http://users.netwit.net.au/~wnfc/ although not all of them are available south of the great dividing range.
Nicci

[wey2go]

I am not running a proper Aquaponics setup. I converted my swimming pool and spa into fish pond. Made the decision as we hardly use the pool and due to water restrictions, keeping pool water at the level where the pool pump will run properly is too difficult.

Now, I have 10 rainbow trouts, approx. 30 Silver Perch and 10 Goldfish in the main pool. A further 100 or so Silver Perch in the spa section.

I have an Oase Biotec 18 pond filter plus another 200 litres home-made filter with shade cloth. Feeding the Oase filter with a 16,000LPH pump and the home-made filter with 11,000LPH pump. Also running a UVC 15 mins every 2 hours.

When I started, the water is pea-green soup. At one stage, I think there is even blue-green algae as the water surface looked yucky with oily stuffs and I get rashes on my shin if I walk in the water.

Now, the water is clear but tea colour.

I have 2 experimental tomato plants and a few water lilies. Killed some "Vietnamese" mint in it as the water is too salt (pool was a salt-chlorinated pool). Tomatoes growing OK. Challenge is to find what will grow well in salty water.

I have bought feed from Grobest before. They are good but freight is on the expensive side.

I am in the eastern suburb, Templestowe.

[newenthuse]

Hi Again,

We have run a down pipe from the guttering into our pool to keep it topped up. The thought did cross our minds to use the pool - but the kids wouldn't be so impressed!! We also don't have the room for enough grow beds to fully stock it - pool is around 50,000lts.
Seeing the main set up might take a while, I have decided to give my poor suffering goldfish the benefits of aquaponics - i'm not sure how they have survived this long... Anyway, I have bought a small submersible pump & will link it up to some plants sitting above the tank - it's in a bay window thing in the kitchen - I'm hoping to grow some fresh herbs. All except mint - I must be the only person who successfully kills it!! It'll be small, but at least I'll see it all in action!!

[Murray]

Fingerling's avbl from Ausyfish in Childers Qld (http://www.aquaponicshq.com/forums/www.ausyfish.com). Very reliable people and good service. They send Australia wide.
You may think that is too far from Vic, but if you can't gt locally it is a good option.
I get all my fingerlings from them.

Good decision not to grow mint in your aquaponic system newenthuse, evidently it goes wild and takes over everything else.

[newenthuse]

Thanks Murray,

is that the place that sells the fresh water mussels as well? Do you know of anyone who has included the fresh water mussels in their systems? I seen them some where, and thought they sound good. I thought freight costs would be extreme, but must say, I was pleasantly suprised.

Congrats on the forum as well - i was going nuts trying to find suppliers down here!! I have found lots of interesting info, and I have barely scratched the surface yet!!! We were up your way over christmas...If only I had known, I would love to see a system in action.

Thanks again

Nicci

[Murray]

Hi Nicci,
You would be most welcome to come by next time you are in Qld.
I don't know about the fresh water mussels....sorry. I have not given them a thought before.
Gary may know something about those.
Please post info as you discover it. There are always people that are just starting out and even the small bits of info are very useful to someone else.

[Martin A1]

Hi Newenthuse,

Here is a link to some info on mussels http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/other-mussels.shtml

It might provide some useful info. This is a hatchery operation in NSW that I get my fish stock from.

Enjoy!

[GaryD]

Hi,

I think that the freshwater mussells came from the aquablue link that Martin has just posted. Yep.....it would have been much clearer if I'd clicked on the link before I made the post.

Aussieponic has purchased some of them.

GaryD

[twintragics]

Hey Nicci,
I am in Geelong with a full on system. I get to the Marsh every week or so on business, be good to catch up.
If ur just after a few fingerlings, I picked up 300 silvers a couple weeks ago. I could drop some in.
TT

[wey2go]

Hi Nicci,
I have some fresh water mussels from AquaBlueSeafoods. Bought a hundred from them but many did not survive as my pond water is too salty.

Moved them to a 600 litres tank with some silver perch.

The mussels seems to be doing OK.

[Jim Bedford]

Hi Wey2go,
Just wondering how your mussels are going. Are they just in the bottom of a clean tank or are they in sediment? How were AquaBlue to deal with?
Cheers Jim B

[wey2go]

Hi! The mussels did not do well in my converted salt-water swimming pool (too much salt). About half of them died. Placed the rest at the bottom of a clean fresh water tank to be company with some 50 - 60 silver perch. Seems to be doing well.

AquaBlue is not bad to deal with. However, was not happy that they sell me mixed sizes silver perch (some were not even 1 cm in length!). I bought a total of 300 from them. Many of the smaller ones did not survive the transit and also growing them is much more difficult.

[Hamish]

Hi! The mussels did not do well in my converted salt-water swimming pool (too much salt). About half of them died. Placed the rest at the bottom of a clean fresh water tank to be company with some 50 - 60 silver perch. Seems to be doing well.

AquaBlue is not bad to deal with. However, was not happy that they sell me mixed sizes silver perch (some were not even 1 cm in length!). I bought a total of 300 from them. Many of the smaller ones did not survive the transit and also growing them is much more difficult.

Technically anything shorter than 25mm is considered fry - not a fingerling. So its a bit cheeky of them to supply these if sold as fingerlings :)

[djs-sa]

when getting ur fingerlings get the biggest that the hatchery supply as they are stronger and survival rates are higher, weaned better onto pellet food also

[wey2go]

That was what (fingerlings of at least 2.5 cm for all of them) I expected when I ordered but what came was different. Some bigger than 2.5 cm, some smaller. Not sure why they do it. My email to them about this went un-answered.

Ate our first rainbow trout 2 weeks ago, after growing for 13 months in the salt water pool. Bought them about 6 cms. The one we ate was 2.5kgs.

[Hamish]

2.5kg in 13 months is great growth - any before and after photos?

[GaryD]

Hi Wey2go,

Congratulations on your trout.....2.5kg is a huge fish.

Not only have you grown trout through a Melbourne summer (the volume of water would have provided the stable temperature needed to achieve this) but you've also successfully converted a swimming pool for aquaponic use.

Are you still running the original swimming pool pumps? If I recall correctly, they were quite large units. The swimming pool was salt water, too.....have you changed over to freshwater fully yet?

Any growing systems?

Gary

[Jim Bedford]

Hi Way2go,
Congrats on the success with the system. The trout sound great. What's your stocking rate? Is 2.5kg typical? Have you had to grade them, and if so, how do you do it in a pool!!
Cheers Jim

[wey2go]

Hi! Stocking rate is very low. It was only a trial to see if fish grow in nasty neglected salt water swimming pool which has algae bloom (water surface had oily streaky look on hot sunny days). I released 12 rainbow trouts in there while attempting to clean up the pool. 2 jumped out when they were about 30cm. I can only see 5 now (with 1 eaten). Not sure what happened to the others. Pool is approx. 8mx3m (kidney shaped) with deepest end approx. 2m.

No chance of grading them. They are too fast to catch. I would guess that 2 will be approx. 2.5kgs each. With the smallest around 1.5kg. Feeding them with feed bought from Grobest (started with Barra feed as they did not have salmon/trout feed, now salmon feed).

Not sure how they survived through Melbourne summer as water temperature was around 28 degrees for many days through the last summer. By all account of what I have read from the net, they should all have died. Yet, they were feeding like a hungry mob!! Suppose to feed some 1 - 2% of their body weight per day. I was feeding on demand. If they eat, I keep feeding (some 10 - 20 pellets at a time). So, sometimes I think they ate some 8 - 10 handfuls of feed per day.

I have 2 pumps (Laguna, Italian pump?) running all the time. 16,000LPH and 10,000LPH. A Oase Biotec filter with the 16,000LPH pump and a home-made filter with shade cloth as filter. I clean the filter every 6 - 8 weeks (approx. 30 mins job).

Not a proper aquaponics system yet as most plants did not survive or grow well (due to salt?). Water is still the water from the swimming pool days plus whatever rain water we get so far. So, still contain salt. Water colour is brownish (like tea).

Have 6 water lilies in the pond. They grew well during summer. Tomatoes I tried did not grow well. "Vietnamese mint" also died. Ammonia water test strip show nil so far for ammonia. Do not have test kit for anything else.

Hair algae was growing fast 2 months ago. Removed the thicker ones from the pool and they seem to stop growing now, with around 30% circumference of the top 20cm of the wall of the pool covered with 1-2cm hair algae. Probably "harvested" a total of around 5 kgs (wet weigh) of hair algae 1 month ago (these were quite thick, around 10cms).

Sorry, do not have before photo but I have after photos. Tried taking photos with the trout in the pool but too much reflection as I do not have polarising filter on my digital camera.

[Jonathan Dyer]

On those hot days the fish would have been congregating down at the deepest part where temperatures are lower than anywhere else and oxygen levels more saturated. As the pool is quite large it takes a long time to heat up and down the bottom will remain quite cool.

[wey2go]

Jonathan: With the water turnover rate being high (combined of some 30kLPH), I actually took water temperature from the water being pumped into the filter. The pump is placed at the deepest end of the pond. So, I'd think water is pretty close to 28 throughout the pool during the hottest summer days.
One those days, the trouts were clearly stressed as they will not feed at all for days at times.