What fish should l put in my dam?
Submitted by Ethan A on Sun, 2018-04-22 18:54
Hi guys
So l have just finished digging out my dam and was wondering what l should put in it l was thinking of putting silver perch and yabbies or maybe Redfin perch can you put these two perch together? I am looking at buying fingerlings how long will it take till l can’t start fishing for silver perch? Any help or advice will be much appreciated this is my first time doing this so l don’t know much should l be feeding them.
Thanks
choc
Posts: 670
Date Joined: 05/01/12
How big and deep is your
How big and deep is your dam?
Does it have water running into it?
Ethan A
Posts: 147
Date Joined: 26/11/13
It’s pretty shallow
its pretty shallow the deepest part would be about 3 metre but during the summer it would be about 1 to 2 metres deep. And no there is no water running into it
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18051
Date Joined: 11/03/08
if your putting yabbies in
if your putting yabbies in the fish will eat them. if no streem running into it you may need to put a fountain or similar to keep the water airated. as far as fish goes , the redfin arent native and cant be released into any other waterway
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
scano
Posts: 1247
Date Joined: 31/05/07
What about
Some small Barra? Would be awesome to sit on the side of a dam with a few bush chooks and catch Barra in a dam.
Mick C
Posts: 607
Date Joined: 26/12/13
Dam
Keeping fish alive in an artifical water body is not simple. Water quality, species type, stocking density and feeding requirements are the initial considerations.
My initial concern is water quality. Once you have an idea about this, you can select the species type that might survive given the likely conditions.
Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.
roddo
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 16/10/09
It will all depend on water
It will all depend on water quality. And where you are located. How long has the dam been established? Get an api test kit to see what your water quality is and go from there silver perch are a fairly hardy fish and can handle cold and warm water. Barra don't like cold water anything under 16degrees and they arnt happy. You can get Murray cod every now and then over here which don't mind a range of temps but I haven' personally grown any.
Airation can be a problem so a solar pond fountain can help with this.
Start with very small stocking densities as you could be throwing money down the drain 10-15 fish to start with would be ample.
I run silver perch all year round in my aquaponics system and run barra in summer and trout in winter.
Pete F
Posts: 310
Date Joined: 07/01/18
Roddo is on the money all
Roddo is on the money all depends on where you are and water quality. Most of WA silver perch are the only year round option.
I grew barra over three summers but moved them indoors for the worst of two winters at gingin and only do rainbow trout over winter. They do make 1kg in the season.
Cheers
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8147
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Yeah if you're looking for an
Yeah if you're looking for an all year species then definitely go Silver Perch as they're extremely hardy. In my AP system I've found that Barra are very slow growing in cooler water and trout are extremely O2 sensitive and start to cark it when the water temp goes above 23 degrees.
I am cycling my AP for trout season with 4 Silver Perch and they just survived the entire weekend with no water circulation due to my RCD tripping due to a wet extension cord. The trout would have carked it within hours.
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Tom M
Posts: 661
Date Joined: 22/09/15
Tried this for years when in
Tried this for years when in Victoria with Redfin and no luck, need to be a huge dam with some flow to have a chance. Best bet yabbies or maron lots of small hiding places need start them off with pvc pipe and hession inserts, car tyres etc.
Tom M
squidvicious1
Posts: 824
Date Joined: 22/07/10
Betltrana springs near
Betltrana springs near brookton has big Murray cod and yellow belly, use to be able fish there for a fee.
dont now if they are still going.
ace rimmer
Posts: 187
Date Joined: 19/08/13
yabbies
I bought a farm around Denmark and put a couple of opera house traps in the big dam expecting to get marron and instead caught heaps of Yabbies, they are so prolific at breeding you would just put the traps in for a couple of hours during the day and hundreds of Yabbies. Then one day none !!!!! so left them in overnight and caught heaps, thinking why I noticed 3 shags visiting my dam one day so go rid of them and now catching Yabbies during the day again cheers ACE
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15648
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Clay or
Is it a clay dam or sandy? Always found yabbies best in clay so they csn burrow and marron in sandy stuff. Shame you couldnt get a bit of extra depth.
Agree with others on ph testing.
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Bluetonic
Posts: 1147
Date Joined: 09/01/08
PM me.I have about 24 large
PM me.
I have about 24 large Silver Perch I need to find a home for. I'm in Bunbury.
Blue Sky, Blue Water, Bluetonic!
davmor
Posts: 248
Date Joined: 29/11/11
Hi Ethan.I know a guy in
Hi Ethan.
I know a guy in Ferguson Valley who is giving the silver perch a go.Over twelve months they have grown well. But his dam is an older established dam.
Bluetonic
Posts: 1147
Date Joined: 09/01/08
Brad at the Aquaponics Place
Brad at the Aquaponics Place on Picton Road also sells Silver Perch fingerlings but PM me 1st as the large Perch I have need to go to a good home so I can concentrate on breeding another species.
Blue Sky, Blue Water, Bluetonic!
mr_meks
Posts: 189
Date Joined: 11/02/11
rcommend golden perch
Family had a dam down south. We had silver perch, but they tended to school up and swim higher in the water column. Once the local shag population go onto them they were wiped out.
Had golden perch also, they stuck to the bottom and were much more stealthy thus survived the shags. I think it took maybe 6 years? til we were catching roughly one kilo models on lures. They were quite agressive, good fun to catch. They did however pretty much wipe out they yabbies that were in there also...
Bazooked
Posts: 151
Date Joined: 18/10/12
aussie bass
aussie bass
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
The old black bream grow quite quick
Black bream are a hardy species and serve quite well in brackish hard water and their growth rate is good, with the qualification that there must be a good food supply.
little johnny
Posts: 5361
Date Joined: 04/12/11
One thing to be careful
Of with yabbies. They can burrow that deep , they can break through clay layer in dam. Silver perch live almost anywhere. Pretty hardy and cheap to buy. Also as above black bream. Put a heap of mosquito fish in there . Breed like mad . Good permanent food supply.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
if you put anything exotic in the dam
You must keep "mum" about it, it's not thieving poachers you have to worry about, it's fisheries, they take a very dim view about such goings on