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No fish yet but...

Here is my aquaponics rig so far. I guess its persistent lack of fish makes it hydroponics. I'm being a good boy this time around and following state fish and wildlife regs importunately that means I can only get my fish from state approved sources. The only fish farm that can legally sell yellow perch in Washington in in Oregon. After contacting them nearly weekly since march about buying some they finally admit they haven't checked their yellow perch pond and probably wont this year. So I'm SOL. Now to plan B, catfish. Hopefully there is fish farm in the actual state this time. If I cant get a reliable (and marginally convenient) supplier for fish fry the state can stick their regs up their ass and I'll just go catch some locally and be done with it. Until I get my fish the plants will have to make due with seasol.

I'm experimenting with a refugerium. They are usually seen in reef aquariums but hey are basically a small aquarium were little food critters can breed and grow without being messed with by the fish. A bit of water is pumped in from the main system and flows out of an overflow along with a few of the tasty little critters for the fish to eat. If it works it'll make a decent supplement to the fishes diet and process more waste. I've got cyclops, daphnia and scuds in it (probably other stuff too) sourced from some local ponds. I want to get some scuds established in my sump as well.

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Comment by Deep Lurker on June 13, 2012 at 1:33am: From what I understand goldfish aren't known to be particularly good eating. Rather than feeding livestock that I can't eat its much more efficient to just use the fertilizer. A great deal of energy is lost to the fish's metabolism and tied up in inedible fish meat. My mistake is trying to be good and follow the rules. As things stand it is looking like there is no practical legal way to obtain game fish (technical even goldfish are of questionable legality in this application) with the exception of rainbow trout (the ONLY game fish anyone cares about around here). I'll continue my attempt for catfish and if that doesn't work I will just take care of business my own way. I will be going after crawdads soon for the sump. I am not sure what lakes in western Washington have yellow perch, supposedly they aren't uncommon. The other thing is I'm not exactly sure how best to catch some, get them home, and keep them alive reliably in the process.

Comment by Don Gibbs on June 9, 2012 at 5:05pm: Why not go to a pet shop and get goldfish? In my system I have bluegill, but I am planning a new system and I will most likely go with goldfish when I get it built and it finishes cycling. The reason I am choosing goldfish is they are a member of the carp family and I have seen videos of them swimming under ice on top of fish ponds. Also they make alot of waste for their size.