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| Fish Tank (No Fish Yet) |
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| Nosy Cat 1 |
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| Nosy Cat 2 - Cat Grass Seeds on Grow Media (Fish Filter) |
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| Decorative Rocks Cover Seed Might Keep Cats from Pulling the Entire Thing Out When They Eat the Grass |
Friday, January 13, 2012
Cataponics
Since my cats are so fascinated with the fish in the big tank, I decided to make them their own aquaponics setup - aka "cataponics." It will have a little fish tank with fish for them to watch and a "grow bed" containing cat grass for them to eat. Technically, it's not really an aquaponics system yet, since the the tank and grow bed are not connected. The little "water pump" that came with the tank is more of a glorified air pump, so it's not strong enough to get the water up to the grow bed. I've got a few ideas on how to make it work, but I will probably get my husband involved since he's pretty smart about those things and always seems to see the most obvious solutions that I wrack my brain trying to figure out.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Fish Apocalypse....
So, apparently the fish were not doing the clean-tank happy dance in that video, they were doing the, "holy cow, what did you do to our pH???" dance. At least that's the current theory, presented to me by both my husband and a friend who is an aquarium expert.
The day after the major water change, I went in to feed the dogs, and there was another floater. I had planned on draining as much of the tank as I could into a clean trash can until I could see the bottom to see if there was a rotting fish carcass or something that was contaminating the water. I did not find a rotting carcass, but instead 20 recently deceased fish lining the bottom of the tank. It looked really weird because they were all facing the same direction, so at first I thought it was the light shining through the slats in the wood...but it was going the wrong way. I scooped the net through the water and came up with about six dead fish in the first shot. Some of them were pretty good sized, considering I was expecting a 1-2 year growth period for these fish (I just got them in September).
After disposing of the remains, I did a search to see if it's safe to eat a dead fish. Some people said as long as it's not floating, and you think you know what killed it (and it wasn't a disease), they eat them. My husband said, "You can eat them, but I'm not." Since he has more logic and common sense than I do, I decided to follow his lead. But, in hindsight, part of me wishes I had separated the floaters from the sinkers and taken my chances with just one....oh, well, there are more fish in the sea. Or, in this case, the hatchery.
I emailed the guys at Liley Fisheries, and they said they have more 4"-6" fish (which is what I started out with), so I think I will clean out and cycle my tank and head back up to Boulder for some more trout...hopefully a little wiser in my aquaculture decisions this time. I still don't know what started the whole fishy death march. All I can think of is it started as shock when we took some out, and that led to a chain reaction, ending in my stupid overzealous cleaning.
Oh, well, live and learn. If at first you don't succeed....buy more fish.
The day after the major water change, I went in to feed the dogs, and there was another floater. I had planned on draining as much of the tank as I could into a clean trash can until I could see the bottom to see if there was a rotting fish carcass or something that was contaminating the water. I did not find a rotting carcass, but instead 20 recently deceased fish lining the bottom of the tank. It looked really weird because they were all facing the same direction, so at first I thought it was the light shining through the slats in the wood...but it was going the wrong way. I scooped the net through the water and came up with about six dead fish in the first shot. Some of them were pretty good sized, considering I was expecting a 1-2 year growth period for these fish (I just got them in September).
After disposing of the remains, I did a search to see if it's safe to eat a dead fish. Some people said as long as it's not floating, and you think you know what killed it (and it wasn't a disease), they eat them. My husband said, "You can eat them, but I'm not." Since he has more logic and common sense than I do, I decided to follow his lead. But, in hindsight, part of me wishes I had separated the floaters from the sinkers and taken my chances with just one....oh, well, there are more fish in the sea. Or, in this case, the hatchery.
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| The Apocalypse |
I emailed the guys at Liley Fisheries, and they said they have more 4"-6" fish (which is what I started out with), so I think I will clean out and cycle my tank and head back up to Boulder for some more trout...hopefully a little wiser in my aquaculture decisions this time. I still don't know what started the whole fishy death march. All I can think of is it started as shock when we took some out, and that led to a chain reaction, ending in my stupid overzealous cleaning.
Oh, well, live and learn. If at first you don't succeed....buy more fish.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Rainbow Revival
Last night, I went down to take a look at the tank. A single fish (which my son later named "Bob") was swimming around the top of the tank very slowly. He bumped into the sides and didn't move much when I touched him. Obviously, this is not healthy fishy behavior. All of a sudden, another fish popped up to the top, head first, with slime and goo all over its head. Then it just floated to the top. Another dead fish. :-(
The nitrite reading was still higher than my little kit can measure, so I decided that today would be a good day to do a partial water change, hopefully before I lost anymore fish.
I started out bright and early at 8:00am, which I realized actually was pretty early for a water change, since the water that had dripped from the hose the day before was now frozen....
I did 4 or 5 30%-50% water changes (I lost count). The entire time, Bob was the only fish we could see. Even with the tank 50% empty, I would shine my little pond light all around the tank, and only found evidence of one other fish. I even moved a pole around the bottom of the tank, trying to detect any dead fish at the bottom.
BTW, Bob was not looking too good. He has a damaged fin and sort of odd coloring for a rainbow trout. Not very encouraging, but I figured at least if Bob lives until spring, maybe we can share a little trout pate or something. And that seemed like a very big "IF."
By 12:30pm, I finally had the nitrite level down below 1.0. This might actually be bad, since I might have replaced so much water that I have to cycle the tank all over again and deal with another nitrogen spike. But, I did what I could to save Bob. I still couldn't figure out what could have possibly happened to the other 20 or so fish...
A while later, when I walked into the room, I heard a big splash. Was that Bob, rejoicing over his clean water? Or trying to escape the too-clean water? Or was it several fish??? I waited a while and walked back in slowly, making sure my shadow didn't extend over the tank, and I saw at least five big, fat trout swimming around near the top of the tank! It's possible they were at the top because they were distressed, but anyone who has ever had a goldfish bowl can tell the difference between a sick fish and a happy-clean-bowl fish. At least, that's what I'm choosing to believe tonight. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning. At one point, I saw at least ten fish swimming around near the top, disproving my son's rapture theory.
Here is a short video clip for your trout-viewing pleasure. Sorry about the bright light in the tank, but it was the only way I could reduce/eliminate reflection on the water.
Quick plant update - as I mentioned, my plants are not looking too good. It's pretty obvious that the light from the window, especially in winter, is not sufficient to sustain healthy plants. I purchased a couple of fluorescent grow lights at Wal-Mart for $11 each. My husband is convinced that I am now on some government list of illegal plant growers, but I think the government is too inefficient to keep track of, or follow up on, that type of thing. Worst case, some D E A dude shows up on my doorstep, I will be happy to bore him with a tour of my aquaponics setup. Only instead of introducing him to my fifteen cats, I can introduce him to each of my trout, and send him on his way with a sprig of basil and a head of lettuce.
As for the cost of running the lights everyday, I calculated that running the two lights for 12-14 hours/day will cost about $10 each per year, so I was able to convince my husband that it's worth the $20 a year. All I need to do is get a few good heads of organic lettuce and it will pay for itself. At least, that's my theory. If I'm wrong, I think I have to give up a few nights of space heater privileges next winter to make up for the 20 bucks. Stay tuned....
The nitrite reading was still higher than my little kit can measure, so I decided that today would be a good day to do a partial water change, hopefully before I lost anymore fish.
I started out bright and early at 8:00am, which I realized actually was pretty early for a water change, since the water that had dripped from the hose the day before was now frozen....
I did 4 or 5 30%-50% water changes (I lost count). The entire time, Bob was the only fish we could see. Even with the tank 50% empty, I would shine my little pond light all around the tank, and only found evidence of one other fish. I even moved a pole around the bottom of the tank, trying to detect any dead fish at the bottom.
BTW, Bob was not looking too good. He has a damaged fin and sort of odd coloring for a rainbow trout. Not very encouraging, but I figured at least if Bob lives until spring, maybe we can share a little trout pate or something. And that seemed like a very big "IF."
By 12:30pm, I finally had the nitrite level down below 1.0. This might actually be bad, since I might have replaced so much water that I have to cycle the tank all over again and deal with another nitrogen spike. But, I did what I could to save Bob. I still couldn't figure out what could have possibly happened to the other 20 or so fish...
A while later, when I walked into the room, I heard a big splash. Was that Bob, rejoicing over his clean water? Or trying to escape the too-clean water? Or was it several fish??? I waited a while and walked back in slowly, making sure my shadow didn't extend over the tank, and I saw at least five big, fat trout swimming around near the top of the tank! It's possible they were at the top because they were distressed, but anyone who has ever had a goldfish bowl can tell the difference between a sick fish and a happy-clean-bowl fish. At least, that's what I'm choosing to believe tonight. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning. At one point, I saw at least ten fish swimming around near the top, disproving my son's rapture theory.
Here is a short video clip for your trout-viewing pleasure. Sorry about the bright light in the tank, but it was the only way I could reduce/eliminate reflection on the water.
Quick plant update - as I mentioned, my plants are not looking too good. It's pretty obvious that the light from the window, especially in winter, is not sufficient to sustain healthy plants. I purchased a couple of fluorescent grow lights at Wal-Mart for $11 each. My husband is convinced that I am now on some government list of illegal plant growers, but I think the government is too inefficient to keep track of, or follow up on, that type of thing. Worst case, some D E A dude shows up on my doorstep, I will be happy to bore him with a tour of my aquaponics setup. Only instead of introducing him to my fifteen cats, I can introduce him to each of my trout, and send him on his way with a sprig of basil and a head of lettuce.
As for the cost of running the lights everyday, I calculated that running the two lights for 12-14 hours/day will cost about $10 each per year, so I was able to convince my husband that it's worth the $20 a year. All I need to do is get a few good heads of organic lettuce and it will pay for itself. At least, that's my theory. If I'm wrong, I think I have to give up a few nights of space heater privileges next winter to make up for the 20 bucks. Stay tuned....
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Fishy (mis)Adventures Part II - Trout Rapture
One fish, two fish, dead fish....*sigh*.....
Recall from Part I, when we decided to take out a few fish to eat, my thought was, "what can it hurt?" Well, apparently, it can hurt a lot.
The next day, January 4, I found a floater in the tank. I don't know what caused the fish's death. In reading about humanely treating fish, I came across a lot of catch-and-release articles. A couple of things I learned - first, try not to take the fish out of the water at all. It's like suffocating them. Next, if you must handle the fish, make sure your hands are wet. If you touch a fish with dry hands, you are effectively "burning" the fish by removing some of its protective slime. Also, the protective slime is part of the fish's immune system, so besides causing the fish pain, you are damaging its immune system. I read on several different sites, that often, if you release a fish and don't handle it properly, it might swim away, so you think the fish is going to live, but it actually swims away and ends up dying. See photo below. Note that this is on a standard-size dinner plate (10" or 12"? I'm too lazy to go measure it).
Knowing that, when we removed the fish from the water, we tried to put the ones we were going to eat back into the water immediately. Also, we did not touch the fish with our hands. I don't know what caused this fish to die. Maybe it was just shock. But, it turns out, it was about twice the size of any of the fish we ate! I think it was the granddaddy trout in our tank.
OK, so one fish down. I think I should be down to 30 or 31 fish at this point, so everything is still good, right?
Wrong.
Today, I go down to take care of the dogs, and there are FOUR dead fish floating around. And a sort-of-alive one hovering near the top of the tank. The nitrate levels are off the charts. The water level was a little low, so I added some water, but the nitrite levels were still out of range of my little chart, so I did a 50% water change. During the water change, yet ANOTHER dead fish comes floating by....AHHHH!!! Frustration.
The only "good" thing about today's experience is that it has been unseasonably warm all week, with today being the warmest day yet. It was about 65-70 degrees outside today, so at least I didn't have to do this in subfreezing temperatures. It's a rather wet and messy process. It did, however, take me three tries before I found a hose that wasn't frozen, but at least I didn't have to carry the water into the house in buckets. My back is too old for that kind of work.
Anyway, here's another picture of fish carcasses. :-(
This is starting to seem like a rather morbid blog....
Now here's where the trout rapture comes in....this is weird. My son and I were shining the light in the tank, and it seems like there are only two fish swimming around! Hopefully, the rest are just so healthy and fast that they're avoiding the light every time we move it and hiding in the corner (is there a corner in an oval tank? whatever). Usually, we can see a bunch of fish shadows swimming around, but now we only see a couple, so my son is convinced the other fish have been raptured.
I still don't know exactly what happened, but I'm guessing one fish died of shock and floated in the water long enough to contaminate the water and kill the other fish. I just checked the nitrite level again, and although it's a lot higher than it should be, at least it seems to have gone down a lot since the water change. I'm hoping that if I don't feed them for a day or two, the level will stabilize.
On a happier note, my plants are still alive. Actually, I don't know that I would call the plants "happy," but they are alive. They're a little yellow, and growing really slowly, but they are still alive. If I decide to continue with this, I will have to come up with an artificial light solution. Here are a couple of pictures taken January 3. I think I planted the seeds at least two months ago, so you can see that the growth is extremely slow. I think if I had planted these outside in June, they would be about this size within a week or two.
The good thing is that I didn't lose very many plants when we had the super-sub-zero temperatures a few weeks ago. There is a gap in the dog door that lets in raw, cold air, and I was afraid it would freeze my plants. I think it got down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was pretty close.
Well, that's about it for now. Not much excitement this winter until recently, so there really wasn't anything to report. Hopefully the next update will have better news!
Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Recall from Part I, when we decided to take out a few fish to eat, my thought was, "what can it hurt?" Well, apparently, it can hurt a lot.
The next day, January 4, I found a floater in the tank. I don't know what caused the fish's death. In reading about humanely treating fish, I came across a lot of catch-and-release articles. A couple of things I learned - first, try not to take the fish out of the water at all. It's like suffocating them. Next, if you must handle the fish, make sure your hands are wet. If you touch a fish with dry hands, you are effectively "burning" the fish by removing some of its protective slime. Also, the protective slime is part of the fish's immune system, so besides causing the fish pain, you are damaging its immune system. I read on several different sites, that often, if you release a fish and don't handle it properly, it might swim away, so you think the fish is going to live, but it actually swims away and ends up dying. See photo below. Note that this is on a standard-size dinner plate (10" or 12"? I'm too lazy to go measure it).
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| Big Dead Fish |
OK, so one fish down. I think I should be down to 30 or 31 fish at this point, so everything is still good, right?
Wrong.
Today, I go down to take care of the dogs, and there are FOUR dead fish floating around. And a sort-of-alive one hovering near the top of the tank. The nitrate levels are off the charts. The water level was a little low, so I added some water, but the nitrite levels were still out of range of my little chart, so I did a 50% water change. During the water change, yet ANOTHER dead fish comes floating by....AHHHH!!! Frustration.
The only "good" thing about today's experience is that it has been unseasonably warm all week, with today being the warmest day yet. It was about 65-70 degrees outside today, so at least I didn't have to do this in subfreezing temperatures. It's a rather wet and messy process. It did, however, take me three tries before I found a hose that wasn't frozen, but at least I didn't have to carry the water into the house in buckets. My back is too old for that kind of work.
Anyway, here's another picture of fish carcasses. :-(
This is starting to seem like a rather morbid blog....
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| More Floaters |
I still don't know exactly what happened, but I'm guessing one fish died of shock and floated in the water long enough to contaminate the water and kill the other fish. I just checked the nitrite level again, and although it's a lot higher than it should be, at least it seems to have gone down a lot since the water change. I'm hoping that if I don't feed them for a day or two, the level will stabilize.
On a happier note, my plants are still alive. Actually, I don't know that I would call the plants "happy," but they are alive. They're a little yellow, and growing really slowly, but they are still alive. If I decide to continue with this, I will have to come up with an artificial light solution. Here are a couple of pictures taken January 3. I think I planted the seeds at least two months ago, so you can see that the growth is extremely slow. I think if I had planted these outside in June, they would be about this size within a week or two.
The good thing is that I didn't lose very many plants when we had the super-sub-zero temperatures a few weeks ago. There is a gap in the dog door that lets in raw, cold air, and I was afraid it would freeze my plants. I think it got down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was pretty close.
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| Bed 1 - Strawberries on the Right, Lettuce and Herbs on the Left |
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| Bed 2 - Sickly Tomato Plant and Some Broccoli and Herbs |
Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Fishy (mis)Adventures Part I - The Feast
WARNING - some of this might be a little graphic for the PETA set. Or for squeamish people (like me) who prefer to buy their meat already dead and wrapped in cellophane.
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After watching what appeared to be a few rather large fish swimming around in the tank for the past couple of months, we decided to take a few out for dinner. The water is still too dark to see the fish very well, so we weren't sure if they were really that big, or if it was a trick of the light, but what could it hurt, right?
So, on January 3, my son and I pulled a few out with a net, but they were way too small, so we put them back. We did this a couple of times, until we finally came out with a few that were smallish eating size. Not wanting to allow my fish to suffer by letting them die of suffocation, we put them in a bucket of water and took them upstairs. I had done a few searches on how to "humanely" kill a fish, and the most popular way I found was using something that stabs them between the eyes, stabs their brains, and supposedly instantly kills them. I didn't trust my skill at getting just the right spot through the skull, so I decided I would try the next best thing (IMO)...chop off the heads. I knew killing the fish would be the least pleasant part of the entire aquaponics process, but it's got to be done.
First of all, this method turned out to be very messy. In hindsight, this should have been very obvious. Usually, by the time a person cleans a fish, it has been dead for at least a few minutes, so the blood circulation has stopped. Chopping the head off a live fish - blood spurts everywhere, all over my kitchen counters and all over us. So, first lesson - don't chop the heads off of live fish.
Next, just like the proverbial chicken running around with its head cut off, the trouts' nervous systems are still active, even after they are dead. Flopping around, gills moving. Ricky even found a little tiny fish heart that was still beating several minutes after the fish's death. Gross.
Thinking the drama is over, we put the beheaded and cleaned fish on a cedar plank to be grilled. Apparently, the nervous system was still active for longer than we thought, because when my husband went out to the grill to check the fish, a couple of the headless fish had "jumped" off the plank and onto the grill. Weird.
Well, either way, dinner was good. Fish, rice, corn, and naan. I was so excited to taste the fish that I almost forgot to take the picture. So, here is the half-eaten, grill-jumping fish. Yum.
Stay tuned for Fishy (mis)Adventure Part II - Trout Rapture....
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After watching what appeared to be a few rather large fish swimming around in the tank for the past couple of months, we decided to take a few out for dinner. The water is still too dark to see the fish very well, so we weren't sure if they were really that big, or if it was a trick of the light, but what could it hurt, right?
So, on January 3, my son and I pulled a few out with a net, but they were way too small, so we put them back. We did this a couple of times, until we finally came out with a few that were smallish eating size. Not wanting to allow my fish to suffer by letting them die of suffocation, we put them in a bucket of water and took them upstairs. I had done a few searches on how to "humanely" kill a fish, and the most popular way I found was using something that stabs them between the eyes, stabs their brains, and supposedly instantly kills them. I didn't trust my skill at getting just the right spot through the skull, so I decided I would try the next best thing (IMO)...chop off the heads. I knew killing the fish would be the least pleasant part of the entire aquaponics process, but it's got to be done.
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| The Six Fish We Decided to Eat |
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| Fish out of Water |
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| Yuck |
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| Ready for the Grill...or so We Thought |
Next, just like the proverbial chicken running around with its head cut off, the trouts' nervous systems are still active, even after they are dead. Flopping around, gills moving. Ricky even found a little tiny fish heart that was still beating several minutes after the fish's death. Gross.
Thinking the drama is over, we put the beheaded and cleaned fish on a cedar plank to be grilled. Apparently, the nervous system was still active for longer than we thought, because when my husband went out to the grill to check the fish, a couple of the headless fish had "jumped" off the plank and onto the grill. Weird.
Well, either way, dinner was good. Fish, rice, corn, and naan. I was so excited to taste the fish that I almost forgot to take the picture. So, here is the half-eaten, grill-jumping fish. Yum.
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| Trout Dinner |
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