Jonty's System 2

[Hamish]

Coco coir works well for me in mesh pots.

[Outbackozzie]

and perlite just plain sucks.

[Jonty]

The cod are doing fine. One died shortly after the move, it was partially digested. I had a total of 86 cod, or so I thought. I knew I had one that had escaped into the Jade tank so I set about trying to catch it. Twelve cod later, I am down to one miscreant that defies moving. I tried cutting a hole in a 180mm pot as a refuge. Worked fine for the twelve I caught but the remaining one has taken on the pack mentality.

It stays in the school and swims along with them or scoots over near the pump to hide. Murrays are basically lazy and stay still on the bottom unless distrubed or it is feed time. I am determined that the little blighter will not beat me. Of the twelve I moved over the largest was 205mm. Must say that the fillets are coming on well.

In future I will cover any tanks with murrays as they are obviously jumpers like Murray's sleepy cod. Lost another one today. I must remember to gently place the pump back in the water and not pin the fish.:o Still have ninety eight so I can't complain.

Regards
Jonty

[Outbackozzie]

Its the other fish that cause the Murrays to jump out - a group of other Murrays will harass one fish until they push it over the edge of the tank.

Quite spectacular to watch.

[Hamish]

Its the other fish that cause the Murrays to jump out - a group of other Murrays will harass one fish until they push it over the edge of the tank.

Quite spectacular to watch.
Sort of like BYAP.... :D

[Outbackozzie]

:D

Happened before my time :D

Jurien bay fish farm has very extensive netting over their MC tanks, and the other fish just force one fish to jump out of the water. Happens more as stocking density increases, and from 6 months of age onwards - they reckon that the fish hit puberty and go crazy.

[Jonty]

Finally bit the bullet and replaced the 15 mm outlet hose to the growbeds. I kept getting a slowdown with the water due to the biofilm/poo build up. It was taking 40 minutes to fill the growbeds and 8 and a half to empty.

Replaced with 20 mm pipe. Fill time now is 11 minutes. The clarity of the water is improving each day.

Have lost 5 murrays. The bigger ones picked on the interlopers from the jade tank and gave them hell. About 10 murrays would surround the poor blighter and take turns at attacking them. Ate them from the tail clear down to the dorsal fin. Managed to save 1- nicknamed Muzza - of course:cool:. It is in a glass aquarium with some carp gudgeon and doing fine.

Purchased 70 jades, 20 silvers and 10 goldens from SEQ fish on 11 December. On 14 January I purchaed a further 20 goldens as the first 10 were going strong. In fact they were growing quicker than the silvers. I feed the fingerlings twice a day with some blood worms in the evening.

On 20 January 48 jades were relocated from the fingerling tank to the main tank as they were a decent size. Rest of the fingerlings are only getting pellets at feed time.

Fish are growing, plants are growing and being eaten by anything that can fly, crawl or walk. Gee! Life's good.

[Jonty]

Today I relocated the original 10 golden perch to the jade tank. These fingerlings were about 35mm when I purchased them. They are now close to 100mm and doing fine. The remaining 20 are also growing well.

These are the Murray/Darling strain and I was given no hope of getting these onto pellets. Still a long way to go but it's looking promising.

Have attached a photo of 3 of them in a 2 litre ice cream container.

[Outbackozzie]

How are all the plants doing?

[Jonty]

Plants are going great guns. Picking heaps of bok and pak choi, silver beet growing mad, sweet corn is just producing cobs. Just finished the last of the celery and the spring onions are kicking along. The only problem is fruit fly, white cabbage buttterfly, parrots and grasshoppers. Wouldn't mind if they just picked on one plant til it was devoured - oh no, have a bit of each one.

Picking up 20 freshwater catfish - tandanus tandanus - tommorrow, will give them a go.

Have now moved all the fingerlings into the large tank. I am impressed with the golden perch with the rate of growth. Seriously considering not getting anymore silver perch. Growth rate is a bit slow.

How's the heat treating plants and fish out your way?

[Outbackozzie]

All good apart from green caterpillars, but Dipel cleans them up :)

Corn will be ready to pick when I get home in a few days, lots of watermellons and rockmellon, silverbeet, tomato, capsicum has been a standout this year. Grapes are growing very rapidly, not expecting anything this year though.

Love it :D

[Jonty]

The dipel is coming out tommorrow. Every time I spray it seems to rain straight after. The eel tailed catfish have settle in and feeding okay. Really wanted some sleepy cod but none were available. Such is life.

[pacman77]

Im Keen to build a similar set up,what do you feed the fish on and what fertilizer for the plants especially bok choi?

[Jonty]

I feed the fish Grobest fish food, worms and greens from the growbeds. Use Seasol occasionally to replace trace elements and chelated iron when the plants show signs of yellow leaves.

Lost another 3 murray cod. The larger ones gang up on the smaller ones and bash the hell out of them. School yard bullies have nothing on these fish.

I managed to get 50 sleepy cod before winter. They were going great guns until the first cold snap and I was too slow in shutting down the pumps overnight. They went into a stupor and looked like they were all dead. Fortunately by warming the water 46 recovered and are going well.

Days are starting to warm and the feel of spring is in the air. Within the next couple of weeks I should be able to turn the pumps on 24/7.