Fish on Trial

Hey Murray has been almost a good year now since the start of the trial. Is it time to weigh in?
PS would love to see seans lupin recipe too as would love to slow grow my fish.
Cheers.

Will the fish eat Black Soldier Fly Larvae? We have heaps growing in our compost which we feed to the chooks regularly and I've been told they can be fed to fish in an Aquaponics or Aquaculture system too

Hi, Yes i am very interested in starting up a fish farm.
could you give me more info on how to startup and more info about food etc.

What about feeding soldier flies larvae?

Hi Murray,
All rare herbs sell Moringa as seed and tube stock. https://www.allrareherbs.com.au/search.php?search_query=Moringa&x=13&y=12

Cheers
Josh.

Great to see Murray. I feed my jade perch on only what i grow and they seem to do really well. Although i havent done any real scientific studies though. I feed them on left over greens from the aquaponics, soldier fly larve, worms from the worm farm and mosquito fish that i grow specifically to feed the jade perch. The mosquito fish form part of the aquaponics system as well as the red claw. All in all it is quite a balanced system.

Cheers
Graham

wish you luck.Will be looking forward to further results and comments.my jade are now 5 months old and doing
well on your feed.
Thanks Geoffery.

good morning,

we have tried similar tests in thailand with vegetables and also sprouted seeds. same result low if any weight gain. Problem is lack of protein. Next test will be to grow and use crickets as the protein source.

pete & derry

This is really interesting Ive been supplementing my JP pellets with left overs from the kitchen made into ice blocks usually cooked rice or couscous with lightly mashed lettuce, peas, stale blueberries, with a dash of Vietnamese fish sauce. They go mad for it.

This is going to be an interesting experiment. I look forward to the results. Why are some of the food items cooked?

HI Murray .. I think if you really want to give this a good go you need to shred and dehydrate the feed recipe you have .. Then too make (as it's only a small number of fish) .. get a pasta roller, roll it out, cut it into spaghetti .. then cut into pellet size pieces and dry .. or get a a old fashioned meat grinder .. and extrude and cut .. onto a screen (bit of mosquito net stretched, and stapled over a wood frame, with a fan on the bottom .. to dry it out) ... as you put it through the mincer cut it flat against the face to make small pellets .. like chicken feed .. then dry them ... I think the problem is you have too much water content, feeding fresh food .. so it's not a fair trial .. dry and concentrate the food ... it's like us eating 200g of steak or 200g of jerky ... i'm going to be giving it a go too, here in Thailand .. just getting the last of the import papers sorted for the jade's, for the new farm, in Bangkok . James Harrison @ GreenEvolution Thailand

I agree with the assessment there is not enough protein. You need higher calorie feed going into tank b! There is a non-profit group here in Phoenix (Gardenpool) that are growing tilapia without commercial feed very successfully. But they are using chickens roosting over the pond to boost nitrogen in the system to grow lots of algae. If you are squeamish about chook droppings and potential salmonella, you could have a separate system just growing algae... But algae really drives their system. You can grow enough algae and duckweed to feed the fish a great diet supplemented with soldier fly larvae in order to get the protein, fat and calories they need but not on the fish waste alone! I should also mention they have figured out how to feed their chickens "off the land" as well using duckweed, insects, snails and such.
Here is an article advocating algae production to add to cattle feed because of the protein and healthy fats it contains: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/news/using-algae-livestock-feed-would-cenefit-environment
Food for thought! :)

Hi Murray, the one glaring thing that is missing from group B's diet is protein, protein builds muscle and fish are just a big muscle so they're at a real disadvantage in this trial, I gave you a fish food recipe in last years course that contained Lupins, there is nothing higher in protein than Lupins you can get them from stock feed stores for about $20 per 20kg bag and mill them or drop them in whole and let them soften or soak them then drop them in, another good source of protein can be gained from spirulina or algae if you can grow some.
My Jades are 15 months old and weigh on average 900g and they've been given that lupin recipe, if you've lost it I can send it through to you.
I hope this helps you even this trial up Murray

EXCELLENT idea! I can hardly wait to hear what the results are in one year.

I know it works on Tilapia. Mine have done fine for years on romaine, kale, Okinawa spinach, compost worms, grubs and soldier fly larvae. Also I give them what is left over from my organic corn chips, after I pulse with a bullet grinder. Both blue and yellow. They love that. I don't know anything about jade perch. Looks like they love lettuce. :) Looking forward to your results Murray. Cheers from central Florida.

Hi Murray, this look awesome. I will also be working on my fish feed later 2017.
For the protein, we are going to use dried moringa leaves mix with Kale.

Will be very interesting to see the results Murray. I think you are right though, we do need to look at alternatives to feed our fish with.