WARNING to Aquapons....Tilapia could be a heartless killer of other fish!!!

Hi there.
About 3 nights ago me and Osama finally decided to go get some Tilapia for our Aquaponics system. At first I was hesistant, worried how on earth we can bring them home....and the thought of telling the salesman that I need them alive... is something weird.. so we decided we will tell him its for a school project.. which is actually true..because we are preparing one Aquaponics system for his science fair 2 months from now.

We got to Marhaba supermarket along Hail street in Ruwais and got 4 healthy and active looking tilapias for only ... 10SAR.. yes... all of them for 10SAR... whatta bargain... it took 3 plastic bags becuase their fins kept poking holes on the bag... finally we had to rush back home with 4 tilapias in a plastic bag.... the taxi driver gave us that strange look when the tilapias flapped.. from the bag...

Upon reaching home, we put them in one small container and soon enough we realized we may need to separate them as ... because of hormone treatments in the farm..all of them seemed to be males and were fighting. That same night I put two of them separately in two of my other aquaponics systems, with already established goldfish groups.

Friday morning.... i found two goldfish dead..obviously attacked because their tummies showed nipping or bites... scales were gone....skins were bruised... ay yayayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... immediately i had to come to the rescue... we put some 4" pvc pipes in the container they were in to give each one some sort of territorial feeling.... but not after 4 goldfish dead 2 more dying... and they were not just goldfish... they were with me since i started aquaponics in january of this year.. so they are almost 8 months old... they have grown happy, healthy and they have been with me on this journey.... what a bummer.... it as a bad way to go......

now.. i am thinking of getting a bigger tank for these 4 tilapias...and maybe come up with a better system for the school fair.... inshallah

so lesson learned! ------- don't mix tilapia with goldfish..... it will be ugly!

Aquaponics Update 25July 2011 - Death of a Pangasius

Bad news.....another one of my Pangasius died. It's the 2nd one in less than a month.

The first casualty was the smalled one. I noticed it was swimming afloat and not on the bottom as they usually do.... after 48 hours in quarantine, its dead.

The 2nd one is the bigger one, it's almost 10" and like the smaller one, has been with me for more or less 3 months.

The same symptoms but in this one, there was more. I noticed the usual color (albino) became more pale and there were small lesions on the skin in the stomach area. It also appeared bloated or like the food it has eaten were not digested and were bulging. Immediately I put it in quarantine, bottled water, a lot of aeration and a little sea salt.

One day, two days, finally it died this morning. It looked gruesome. I don't know what it is and why it happened and I will not stop searching for information.

YUGE mini Home Aquaponics System

Includes:

12 gallon fish tank

7 gallon growbed

water pump

air pump

plumbing

siphon set

seedlings or seeds

All you have to do is add water and fish!

email: yes2fx@gmail.com

Aquaponics in Jeddah update 28 June 2011, Tuesday

AP System 1 (after 5 months and 3 grow bed changes) :
- 2 Amplaya seedlings going on 8 inches tall and starting to climb
- Okra still holding on, showing new shoots on main branch, no flowers, no fruits for long
- Basil still holding on, cut a couple of stems and cloned
- Tomatoes all seemed to have halted growing, maybe because of the heat
- 2 new watermelon seedlings
- All fish happy and healthy

AP System 2 (after 3 months and 2 growbed changes)
- with lone Bellpepper growing steadily, leaves bigger than my palm
- sweet potato climbing now and long at 2 feet
- new ampalaya seedling germinated 2 days ago
- Pangasius are healthy and happy....

AP System 3 (after almost 2 months)
- cucumber steadily growing
- 2 ampalaya, almost 2 feet long now and started climbing
- 2 bush beans... long and healthy
- spinach, slow growth
- japanese parsley, slow growth
- 1 small goldfish died 2 days ago.. others are healthy and happy


Self Watering Container garden....

All plants happy and healthy, periwinkles stopped blooming but growing



That's my update and will share some photos later

New Original Aquaponics Logo

Fish, plant, bacteria and me...... this is my Aquaponics.

Aquaponics in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia update 25 March 2011 --- more pictures

Sprouting peppermints in a plastic cup. To avoid losing the tiny seeds, i lined the cup with tissue paper, seeds, one layer of hydroton...it worked!
Sprouting basil in a plastic cup, lined up with tissue paper. This is going to be my germinating technique from now on.

Cappucina in a small container with potting mix topped with hydroton. I want to experiment growing these flowering vines on conventional method and lets see if it works.

Bell pepper / siling prasko on my AP System 2. I was able to grow a few of them... i love bell pepper in spaghetti, noodles and mixed vegetables... i tasted it once also as topping for scrambled eggs!

Brocolli on my AP System2 ... it takes ages for them to grow.. but they are OK.

Watermelon / Pakwan, crawling down. It has 3 new stems with flower buds. I have to wait for a few more months.. before i see fruits from it.

Taro/Gabi first leaf, 2nd leaf about to open... can't wait to have my first organic 'laing', not from the can!

Basil - smells good in the garden! Tried to put a leaf in my hibiscus tea yesterday...tasted good.

Bush beans / bitswelas - in the Philippines, I think these only grows in Baguio..well, let me try and grow them here and we'll see....

My recycled home-made plant tower - Aquaponics

This is a crazy diagram of my version of a planter. On top of it is the actual plant tower. What I had in mind is to clone the strawberry tower using recycled 6L water bottles that I have at home. I did it and had it working but finds it hard to make it stand on the tank. I am going to revise this plan and make four stands and connect them with a 4-way PVC connector forming a square. I hope to work on it this weekend and post it, inshallah.

I now have 2 small aquaponics system running in my balcony. One with 7 goldfish and one with 4 guppies.

Will post some updated photos later on!

Can't wait to see those beautiful cucumber flowering and crawling in my balcony...inshallah!