Some people may remember my aquaponics thread from a few years ago. I continue to learn and try to find better ways of doing what i do. I know its not exactly pond related but I dont have a pond and i learn a lot about raising native fish here. So if there is interest i will attempt to "give back" and share what i am doing in my back yard as i turn it into a quarter acre suburban food forest.
I have two 1500 gallon fish tanks and one 700 gallon fish tank, and about 400 square feet of aquaponics grow beds. I also do soil gardening in raised beds and whicking beds. I have young fruit trees and wine grape plants that I hope to gain perennial harvests from in future years.
I always think its neat to watch fish eat (especially from under water). Here is a couple of videos i made this morning. The first one has 150 channel cats and the second one has 50 channel cats and 100 hybrid striped bass.
Right now, they are all eating the same AM 400 fingerling/starter food. Once they get bigger i will move the hsb/channel cat tank to am500/600, but the channel cat only tank i will use the more omnivore balanced feed (lower protein/lower cost) am2000/4000 . generally we identify high protein with fast growth but i think the idea is that the omnivore is more appropriately balanced for catfish and they should not grow any faster on the high protein predator feeds than the properly balanced omnivore feeds?
I really like how the catfish swarm and glide around like sharks stalking their prey. And the speed/agility of the HSB is amazing!
