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Amazing results! Nice work, Bruce.


Todd La Neve

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Bruce - Thanks for all the pictures and info. Great fish raising as usual.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 01/12/13 09:29 PM.

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What's the scoop here Bruce?

Fill us in!

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Great time to ask.

I lost 180 fish in the last five weeks. Examination of all the dead fish strongly suggested starvation.

Evidently you either learn to eat bits of pellets and bloodworms, or you perish.

I cleaned the tank one last time this morning, and began the process of emigration to the outdoor tanks.

I moved out all of the adult fish. We had 100% success keeping the big ones alive. They ate half and whole nightcrawlers all winter.

I moved out 210 of the little bluegill and redears that survived. They seemed to be in fair condition, but I believe that they maybe, at most, grew 2-4 mm, and barely maintained body condition. The remaining fish in the tank (maybe 150?) all seem healthy and happy, and are already back on the feed.

I took out the heater because the ambient air temperature is now above what the heater kicks on at.

I'll get some pictures eventually. laugh


Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Well, here we go again. I'd like to restart this thread. Later today I'll post some photos.

Question #1 for winter 2013/2014.

I've been trying a variety of live foods for my redear sunfish. Pelleted feed is limiting, as far as number of fish because of it's tendency to cloud the water and degrade the quality.

By far, the best thing I've found so far is red wigglers! smile

I ordered 5,000, and the fish are going through them like crazy. It had crossed my mind to culture them a little bit. I think I would need to produce about 50 pounds of them each year to make it worth my effort.

Is this an unrealistic goal? I know I have the space to do it. And I also have the ability to modify temperatures in that space. Any ideas if there is a temperature range that would be best for this sort of endeavor? Thanks in advance!


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By the way, last winter I was only able to maintain water temperatures in the very low 40's. This year I'll be in the upper 60's.


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How about hooking up a flood and drain tank (aquaponics) with your fish tank with redworms in the media? Although my aquaponic tanks are raft tanks and I don't use redworms, I've been told the redworms flourish in the media and reproduce.

It's a win win as if you do it right. You won't even have to do water changes in your fish tank as your plants will consume the nitrates and your media will do your biological and mechanical filtration. And you can produce fresh produce.

A few on here can verify if you can produce enough redworms and how much media you would need.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Maybe Leo could weigh in on this.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Originally Posted By: Bruce Condello
By the way, last winter I was only able to maintain water temperatures in the very low 40's. This year I'll be in the upper 60's.


I was having some trouble selecting tank heating.

Didn't want to spend the big bucks on a reliable industrial rig, nor did I want to get a failure prone piece off the internet.

Maybe a week or so ago, an old brain cell, which has an electric wheel chair, buzzed up front.

Said, Hey dude! Remember that life cycle rig from back in the 90's?
Yep!
What did you use to heat the water?
Electric hot water heater elements. (domestic)
How long did it run?
24/365 for eight years before they shipped the system off to China.
Well, there ya go! Don't make me take this trip again! Do you know how dangerous it is navigating this scrambled egg? eek

Seriously tho, they will work in my application, and not too expensive for the good ones.

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Originally Posted By: Bruce Condello
Well, here we go again. I'd like to restart this thread. Later today I'll post some photos.

Question #1 for winter 2013/2014.

I've been trying a variety of live foods for my redear sunfish. Pelleted feed is limiting, as far as number of fish because of it's tendency to cloud the water and degrade the quality.

By far, the best thing I've found so far is red wigglers! smile

I ordered 5,000, and the fish are going through them like crazy. It had crossed my mind to culture them a little bit. I think I would need to produce about 50 pounds of them each year to make it worth my effort.

Is this an unrealistic goal? I know I have the space to do it. And I also have the ability to modify temperatures in that space. Any ideas if there is a temperature range that would be best for this sort of endeavor? Thanks in advance!


I am looking forward to seeing some pictures. smile

I am feeding five RES that I moved indoors into a 75 gallon aquarium small fathead minnows, nightcrawlers, and bloodworms.

Your RES should do very well with red wigglers.



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Bruce, I've done that and have some doubts as to the viability of the idea. 50 pounds of worms would be an astounding amount.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
Bruce, I've done that and have some doubts as to the viability of the idea. 50 pounds of worms would be an astounding amount.


My biggest concern would be the dirt that I would have to sift through to clean the worms for consumption. It needs to be something sort of "clean" and easy to rinse. I'll send pictures of what the worms were delivered in.

But yeah, you're right. Sounds like a LOT of worms. That would be a pound of overall growth a week. It would need to be a big bin. Maybe I can come up with a link to what this particular company suggests.


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Pictures coming soon.


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Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
Bruce, I've done that and have some doubts as to the viability of the idea. 50 pounds of worms would be an astounding amount.


50 pounds would be a bunch. Maybe be about 1300.00 bucks from a distributor if you bought them.

Feed training and feeding in a tank that is not intended for said purpose will result in very poor water quality.

Tossing a sock with a few bio-balls stuffed in the toe part is not an effective solids filter, nor an effective bio-filter.

Sure am glad I don't jump anymore when the twitch hit's me wink

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I'm actually controlling the water quality by simple 20 gallon daily water replacement. So far, my ammonia test strips indicate no spike in unionized ammonia.

Here's photo #1.



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Here's photo #2, showing some of the redear sunfish that are anxiously awaiting their next meal.



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Current food item of choice. 1 3/4 cents each including delivery.



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The company and delivery method for 5,000 red wigglies!



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...and they were delivered in fabulous shape!


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How many gallons are the tanks?

I use simple aquarium heaters with sensors for for my tanks that run from 250 to 300 gallons plus. Biggest heater I use is 1000 watts and it's not on all the time. One of the high schools I set up bought an AES industrial heater and thermostat and it fried in no time. My aquarium heaters have been going strong for 2 years now.

I bought my heaters on Amazon for under $100.00 like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/1000-WATT-TITANIUM...ater+1000+watts

What is your total ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates in your system? I wasn't aware you could measure un-ionized ammmonia with a test strip. Really?

Even below lethal levels of all of the above will stress your fish and produce lousy growth rates. Test strips suck IMHO. You really need to invest in something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit/dp/B000255NCI




Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 11/24/13 03:42 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Here's a look inside the bag.



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Cecil, I promise I will look into that stuff, but I think I'm under a little less pressure as far as water quality, given the fact that I'm replacing water at such a high rate. The tanks are 300G and 400G. I hope to have total water replacement every 2 weeks.


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No worries Bruce and I'm sure you have a lot on your plate as far as running a dental business. Just seems like some minor changes to your system could up your carrying capacity and reduce your water changes. I.e., a self cleaning center drain and side drain run to some kind of diy filter would remove your solids for you. Then a dedicated biofilter (also diy) would keep all your nitrogen parameters except nitrates at zero. And of course keeping your water temp in optimum range. Once you do that you would be amazed at the growth rates of panfish in a tank.

My 200 YP YOY in less than 200 gallons of water are now pushing 10 inches. Not sure one would even get that in a pond.

Higher water temps also make the fish hungrier and more apt to feed train.

As far as aquaponics and the redworms I'm not sure that is a viable option especially indoors. Just thought I'd throw it out there for the other aquaponic people to chime in on.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1


My 200 YP YOY in less than 200 gallons of water are now pushing 10 inches. Not sure one would even get that in a pond.

Higher water temps also make the fish hungrier and more apt to feed train.



Cecil post pics of those YP if possible.

Each fish species has a temp range from low terminal to high terminal. Within that range feeding and growth max at different points but not anywhere near either lethal extreme. To a point within that optimum range feeding activity is usually a little higher just below the max growth rate point which is well below thermal max. So higher water temps are good but only so far.

Cecil I know you know the above so it is intended for others who may not know about fish being cold blooded and how their growth , feeding and metabolism work.
















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Great post.


Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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