Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Information

Feeding

What commercial feeds do you use, where do you get them?

What about growing/making your own feeds?

Home made fish feed recipes.

Fish nutrition?

Are worms and/or BSF larva good fish feeds?

Members: 177
Latest Activity: Dec 18, 2020

 

I've noticed there has been much talk about trying to feed fish sustainably as well as trying to make them healthy to eat.  I thought perhaps this warranted a group.  Another point to keep in mind is that the fish feed in aquaponics is not simply a means to grow fish, it is also our primary means of getting proper nutrients to our plants so one can't really expect to remove fish and veggies from a system into which no external feed is added.  If you will be removing fish and veggies to eat, you will have to replace the nutrients you take so you can't expect to grow all the fish feed in the system and still have much nutrient left over to provide veggie growth and fish harvest.  (No perpetual motion machine.)

 

That said, there is much that can be recycled within an aquaponics system or if not directly, it might go through worm or bsf bins before coming back to the fish.

 

I'm starting a list of links here to previous discussions on feed and related things

Worms

Alternative Fish feeds

Fish Feed

automatic duckweed feeder

Fish Feeders

What feed are you using

 

Discussion Forum

Tilapia feed recipe

Started by steve. Last reply by Sue Whitney Jun 18, 2014. 4 Replies

Would like to work on developing a Tilapia feed recipe. It would consist of several  possible component categories. 1. Animal or bug Protein, fish products, BSF  2. Grains, Corn, Soy, Rice, carbs. 3.…Continue

growing brine shrimp for feeding

Started by Hydroponics Curacao Dec 15, 2013. 0 Replies

I'm interested in starting to grow brine shrimps. I've searched the Internet a lot about these but I keep getting different information. Does someone on here know how to grow them to give me tips?…Continue

"The Future of Aquafeeds"

Started by Paul Trudeau. Last reply by halemart Sep 28, 2012. 2 Replies

Click below for an interesting report from NOAA on fish food, dated Dec. 2011:The Future…Continue

Sustainability Overview of Fisheries Used for Fishmeal, Fishoil Released

Started by Paul Trudeau. Last reply by tilly the tilapia Jun 27, 2012. 5 Replies

from The Fish Site Newsletter, June 26, 2012: "Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has released the annual sustainability overview of fisheries used for fishmeal and fish oil."  Read more at: …Continue

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Comment by Jake Schneider on August 19, 2011 at 10:10pm
What we need is a fish/plant friendly dissolvable fly paper.  Just set it under the porch lights and throw it in the fishtank in the morning.  Any chemical engineers in the house?
Comment by BullwinkleII on August 7, 2011 at 6:16pm

Thanks everyone, I'll shoot for 25c or so with the duckweed tank.

 

Comment by Kobus Jooste on August 7, 2011 at 12:01pm

As mentioned, the first sign of distress was around the inflows

By the end of the day it looked like this.

 

I have seen dead or unhappy duckweed before, but nothing like this.  Kind of like you poured bleach in on the one end and just watched them die off rapidly.  I have never seen it again although right now I battle with little patches of fungi every now and then.  Must be something that got into the system and manages to survive the UV sterilizer.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on August 7, 2011 at 11:54am

Bullwinkle - I have Lemna gibba (fat duckweed) that I have pushed to 33 degrees Celcius (water temp) before, but I crashed that population momentusly.  I think it was a fungal infection (spreads on the surface of a dense colony) that spread like wildfire, as the whole set-up was dead in a day. Most references that I have found puts lower 30's as the upper limit.  At those temperatures, I think they are a bit vulnerable though, especially to stuff that may not show up at lower temps.  Right now my system is in winter mode but is still yielding very well - around 1.5 kg wet mass per week from 7 square meters of bed on a nutrient loading of under 20 grams of fish food per day.  The upper cm or so of water in which they sit actually gets far hotter as the colony prevents circulation.  I'm installing extractor fans before it gets too hot this year (all the vents were open and I still got 33).  I also installed 40% shade netting inside the system, which is a polycarbonate structure of 27 m2)  

Comment by TCLynx on August 7, 2011 at 11:10am

Bullwinklell, I believe Kobus has encountered killing off his duckweed variety with high temperatures before.  I believe it is the water temp that kills it not the air temp.  I've had some local variety here that was surviving fine in rather warm water as long as it was in very heavy shade.  I have another sample that I put into a different pool as was doing well even in +30 c water until I gave it a dose of ammonia and now most of it has turned white so it seems like a combination of factors will be involved.

Comment by Carey Ma on August 7, 2011 at 10:11am

It is so unfortunate that the US gov led the way and chose to eradicate our freedom to grow and soiled the name of hemp. Farmers here can grow up to eight plants for fiber, feed and seed. No unfortunately I do not count and am therefore disqualified. Sigh. Hemp is THE most versatile plant on this planet. Truly a miracle plant.

Oh hey, a shout out to the peace puffers. ;)

Comment by RupertofOZ on August 7, 2011 at 9:04am

Yeah most definitely Bullwinkle... you'll kill the duckweed off with temps over 30c for more than a day or two... indeed 28c is probably about the limit...

 

You can get a "giant" duckweed variety that handles higher temps though.... which is the "major" version of the plant genus... and prolific in the Northern Territory..

 

Comment by BullwinkleII on August 7, 2011 at 8:36am

I've just set up a hothouse, and collect some heat from 4mm poly strung up near the top, and pump it down to a duckweed tank near the FT at the bottom in an attempt to "buffer" my FT temperatures. I'm seeing temperatures around 36c in the water entering the duckweed tank.

 

Does anyone know the maximum temp duckweed can handle, and or it's prefered range?

Or even if you don't know, does anyone have any experience of wiping out their duckweed where they thought it was a temperature based issue.

Comment by Carey Ma on August 7, 2011 at 7:26am
All smiles...thanks, you are a true sweetheart.
Comment by TCLynx on August 7, 2011 at 7:23am
I know you posted it some where Carey because I remember reading it.  I'm going to copy this comment and paste it into the Duckweed thread for you though since it is about Duckweed.
 

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