A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

cold/ cool weather

what do systems do in the cooler times when there are no veggies growing , or is that called a fish fry time ? also when the system is out of balance too many fish and or too much veggies . what do you do to rebalanced it ? untill things catch up with each other

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Permalink Reply by Richard Wyman on August 25, 2011 at 1:10pm

When your system cools everything slows down together, plants, fish, and bacteria. If you can keep your water from freezing you should be able to keep certain types of fish alive, and plants growing as well, they all just do it very slowly.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on August 25, 2011 at 7:46pm

Some type of fish and plants actually would probably prefer your winters to your summers in GA.

Winter is actually my best veggie time growing greens and broccoli and kohlrabi, beets, spinach, kale, lettuce. Right now is about the worst time for me.

Yes, if you can keep your water from freezing it is as Richard says.

I grow catfish and bluegill that will survive winters without heating though they will not eat and grow as much as the water gets cold.

Permalink Reply by Robert Davenport on August 25, 2011 at 10:03pm

usually freezing is minor [ last year was full of hard freezes ] I had thought of buying some catfish fry and hybrid blue gill and trying to start in the fall

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on August 26, 2011 at 6:42pm

You will want to make sure you get started early enough that you can get the system cycled up and get the fish in and started growing before the water gets too cold. Small Fry need to be kept warm enough to eat till they grow out enough to survive weeks without eating (Why most wild animals give birth in spring.) I did once get very small fingerlings on Christmas and they were in an outdoor completely unprotected system and it got cold and I probably had about a 50% survival rate since many of those fish were not fattened up enough to survive fasting for weeks on end.

Catfish and bluegill generally don't feed much when the water gets down close to freezing. This isn't a big deal for healthy advanced fingerlings but really tiny fish can starve in freezing water.

Permalink Reply by Robert Davenport on August 30, 2011 at 7:41pm

ok in the catfish bluegill type fish how big is big enough ? 3inches ?

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on August 30, 2011 at 7:44pm

a three inch catfish is actually really tiny. I would aim for say 5-6 inches on catfish before really cold weather sets in.

A 3 inch blue gill is is probably up to going hungry at least a little bit. However, I am really guessing on the bluegill since I haven't kept them over winter yet.