This Blue Tongue Lizard has been hanging around for some time he is still asleep, its been to cold for him to get active and he is not the only one.

One of last years hatchlings and its doing fine, this fish is eleven months old and you can see it has big fat belly. it was caught in pond no/4 where there is loads of plankton and other foods, this one took a big fat flat tail worm. Continue reading →

Yabbies are a great source of protein for fish and that is where these ones are headed, a feed of cooked yabbies like this should do the fish for a few days, this time of year their metabolism is starting to fire and they will be looking for more food.

The water in my ponds has reached 16 degrees so breeding will begin now and I should have young fish mid to late Dec, this will be the fourth year I have produced these fish and the secret is fresh clean water that is chemical and salt free yes I know salt is a chemical but I mention it separately because some aquaculturists wash out their equipment with salt not thinking that some of the residue can make into the water, whilst this will not harm the fish it may put them of breeding so no chemicals at all.    It is my belief that these fish are more susceptible to the effects of chemicals than others due to their habit of stirring up the detritus and mud on the river bottoms to find food if chemicals from sprays have accumulated there then they will come into direct contact with it so it is vital that over spray and run off are controlled to prevent this from happening.

A neighbour had a dead tree fall over in the wind and I bought if from him for fish habitat, the tree was on a cow paddock and so was destined for the wood fire now it will be used for fish habitat.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The deck is done it will settle a bit and will need to be adjusted down the road but for now it serves the purpose, notice the aerator on the right hand side it runs for about eight hours after a days charging so I will turn it on at night time.

The Emu looks fantastic, a pair of teal doing there thing.

The new deck is almost ready I have been working on it for a few days but the rain has kicked me off today , at least you can walk half way along. The metal spar at right angles is to stabilise the structure to stop sideways movement it will be cemented in when the deck is finished.

Fixing up my solar panel and then moving it to the new ponds to run aeration compressors.

I will run the power from this  panel to regulator and then to a battery or two and then to the 12 vote compressors and then through air lines to the ponds, I will keep the air stones  off the bottom of the ponds to allow for silt build up, another swim coming up to place the air stones.   Solar power is ok but the nature of the beast is when the cloud cover is persistent over some days there is no power this will not matter to the outside ponds however you cannot rely on it for permanent power or even backup.

Putting the new jetty in place, the water is cold but not to cold the fish will be thriving, the amount of plankton in the water is unbelievable.

The jetty provides many benefits no just for our access but cover for the fish, protection from birds, these fish love to be under things and in the dark its where they feel the safest and of course if fish feel safe and have enough food then they will breed.  

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The video is not good( its not the camera its the user) but these creatures are very small and look like small deformed yabbies, they are a vital part of the food chain and without them we would not have as many fish.