Tilapia - Harvest of The Year - Part II

From Part I : The Hard work start..


Took me sometime to get all the Tilapia out, you can see from the video I short of breath.... Phew... :) Having a cold makes matter worst.


One good thing about having a backyard fish tank is that, you know exactly what goes into their feed. I don't buy Catfish or Tilapia from the market... :)



Trying hard to get all those fishes.
Amir, Ayshah and Shafiyyah (nearest) looking at the fishes. They made lots of noises in the video. Well they are excited too.
All covered up, I'll sort them tomorrow. Those bigger ones will be for Barbeque and I'll keep the medium size as Breeder. I need to ensure there will be more  females than males to keep.


Those smaller are the ideal size to turn them into Traditional Malay Fermented Fish (Pekasam) this is only for the brave, but around the world there are many type of Fermented fish made. Almost every continent has their own Pekasam over here is the same. 


I'll make a video on it, so that future generation will know how to make these delicacies
These 3 Yellow Tail Catfish (Patin) are the first for the pot.... each weighing about 1 kilo.
Yummy,, Asam Pedas Patin - Yellow Tail Catfish Asam Pedas.. with Cherry Tomatoes from back yard.

Tilapia - Harvest of The Year - Part I

31st Dec 2010 is a reason for celebration, one year has passed by and all is well. Hope next year will be better for all.


This last harvest of the year, I am catching all Tilapia and other fish, I will select about 20 breeder for keeping and the rest will be for a BBQ and Fermented Fish.
 Those are the fishes, I already reduce amount of water in tank so that they are easily catch.
 There are about three Red Tail Catfish and few other type.
One lone Yabbies survived out of the six that I purchased a while back.
Holding Tank ready and next is the hard work.

Tilapia - Breeding Part II

I did a short write up on Tilapia breeding, well its an attempt to get them to breed on this post. It was almost impossible to see any new fingerlings or fry since I have Yellow Tail Catfish (Patin) together in the tank. This catfish feed on Tilapia fry.


I isolate few mature Tilapia in my home kit and as previous post they breed but, only a few survived and transported to growbed and stay there.
Above my home kit, all plants removed and I am about to clean it, to my surprise there are hundreds of fry swimming around inside the main tank.
There were eight Tilapia in there and I manage to get all out, not one die during this short stay they were in there. What better they breed.
Fry every where, I need to put all these fry in a safe place so, no other choice but to scoop them away.
Easy does it.
Temporarily placed them in a basin and I need to buy another aerator to ensure they will not die.
Not many but its enough to restock, and once I know how to do it.. its then just a matter of refining to make it better.

I let those bigger pellets soak and eventually dissolved in this basin to provide food, they will require different feed, those more powdery stuff.
Those fingerling in top growbed I need to get them in a better place. This growbed I will transformed into Tilapia breeding nursery bed.

Update 30th Dec - General

Those Cherry tomatoes are dying, and I need to carefully ensure no ammonia spike in tank and what needed is to reduce the number of fish.
What made it worse is the last few weeks I am away and very busy with work and  not able to maintain my set properly.
Today I cleaned all the pumps and drained out part of water in tank, since now is rainy season. I do not need to add water it will be added naturally.
A 15mm pipes is handy to slowly drained tank into nearby drain. It will stop once the desired level reached.
All is not bad, Asparagus is growing slowly. Must see how it turn out. These asparagus will take a long time to grow.
Over this next few weeks I will gradually remove those cherry tomatoes and plant something else. It's also best time for me to redo some of my growbed and all those Tilapias I will harvest. Some of it will be for the New Year's BBQ and few more I'll be making it into traditional Malay pickle.


I'm thinking of making a video of the pickling process.. :)

Time Out - Merry Christmas... :)

Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends .. drive carefully during these period... :)
Just back from Borneo with the kids, visited my eldest son who is stationed there.
Amir won't let go his brother.

Amir Picking Tomatoes

More Cherry tomatoes ripening and the plants will die once all tomatoes ripen.
Amir is picking some

Just back from Singapore

Just arrived from Singapore... and one photo of tomatoes for starter.


From the backyard.

Asparagus Update - 11th Dec 2010

Transplant most of the Asparagus to growbed after the first survived 4th Dec ordeal. Left a few in nursery gravel bed and I'll wait and see what happen.
Easy does it during transplant..  "Handle like eggs". What's left below.
Please God let it grow.... Amin... :)

Getting A bit Chilly around here.

It must be more than 3 week after I sown those Chilli seeds. All I get is this one little Chilli seedling.
Where the rest disappeared too ? Hold on to your horses, is that chilli seedling.. need to wait for it to grow bigger.

Water Feed

I use a pump for two growbed, this is so far the easiest and cheapest way for me to do it. Photo below is my water feed. Pump rating roughly 2000 Litres/Hour approximately 500~600 GPH.


This arrangement make it very easy for me to clean the pump. Take it out do a quick cleaning and pop it back in.
That red ball valve is open to the maximum, it was there to restrict water flow. But its not needed, too lazy to change the PVC pipe. It works so why bother.
The top part is just a "Tee" splitting water into two. Its not a perfect split, occasionally one side get more that the other due to trapped air causing unbalance situation. It normally fix itself after few minutes, unless its slanting to one side then the problem will stay.


This is easy and one pump do 2 growbed.

Its War !!

No.. North didn't cross over to the South yet... or any nuke flying around in the North East. It this white flies (Bena Putih) they are invading my growbed.
I did not spray anything yet, resort to hand picking. Looks like they are winning the battle.
These ugly white flies are a nightmare to me, I need to get something to get them off my set.
It took some time for them to attack these Cherry Tomatoes and now they started to multiply. May need to look for some organic spray.
Even on the stems. I hand pick where ever possible.
Its going to be a big mess.
Someone told me use soapy water, does it work.. ??
They multiply very fast... short of time. I'm flying off to Singapore tomorrow for a week. Hope its don't get much worst during that period.

Elusive Tilapia Fry

Rearranging my home kit pots, what do you know.. ! few Tilapia fry in the growbed. This growbed I do not have gravel in it but pots with gravel. So there is water where gravel not present.


Few Tilapia was seen in this bed. How on earth it get there and survive ? Could it be the eggs got suck by the pump and deposit it there or could it be the fry itself got transported to the bed.


Few shots that I manage to capture, they are hiding and a bit difficult to catch.
I will need to wait for them to grow bigger before catching and put them in a proper place.
This growbed drain to about 1/2 inches of water so they are able to survive in it.

Conceptual 3D Rendering of Aquaponics - Abhar Amir Alias

Receive pictures from Abhar Amir Alias


The following picture are interesting 3D rendering by Abhar Amir Alias. The siphon below is an improvement in my initial design. He has included a strainer guard that will hold the strainer in place instead of having to use Silastic or other adhesive.
Its more or less same, however the strainer do not need to make all the holes to the top. The most critical part is the lower 1/3. This is where all water need to channel towards the siphon bell.
Bottom part of siphon not shown. Bottom piece is equally as important in a siphon. It will form a balance mechanism to ensure adequate aeration, water cut off and starting of siphon.
3D rendering of NFT, as some practice in Aquaponics
Flood and drain growbed and Deep Water Culture (DWC) below.
Another view of Deep Water Culture below.
DWC below.
I wish I had the time to learn these Drawing software.

Asparagus Update - 4th Dec 2010

After 20 days from sowing this is the size of Asparagus. It was sown on 14th Nov and now roughly 5 inches tall.
I picked one as the guinea pig and transplant into growbed.
Very carefully I need to remove the seedling and replant it into the growbed. Its hardly 1mm in size the stem.
Let just see what happen, never done this before :)