How much fish feed??

[ManganJ]

I'm trying to figure out how much it will cost me to feed my silver perch in my AP system when it is up and running - cost is important here - so I will do my best to grow duck weed and try to do BSF too in the warmer months. To begin will have approx 20 fingerlings...........I've put alot of effort in to trying to learn all I can to prepare for a future with less resources - I was expecting AP to be apart of that - I guess I'm whinging as I'm finding it difficult to nut it all out and pull off successfully in an urban area. Anyway how much do you guys spend on feed?? I know it will differ from person to person but just curious.

[RupertofOZ]

To put it simply... you can measure your approximate cost by the FCR.... feed conversion ratio...

Typically for Silver Perch... this might be 1:1.5... possibly 1:2 if fed lightly....

In other words.... 1 kg gram/kilogram of growth requires 1.5-2 gm/kg of feed....

So if you stock your fish at say 50 gm... and they get to 350 gm by the end of summer...

Then you've had 300 gm of growth for each fish... and you've had to feed them 450-600 gm of feed for each fish...

Does that help.... remember that during winter your fish will drop right of feed.. to almost nothing, and wont begin eating again until the water temp rises above 16-18...

[ManganJ]

ahhhh....yeah thanks that does help Rupert cheers.

This might sound silly - but if the feeding drops off in winter, how does this effect the plant growth?
does this mean that I wouldn't be expecting to harvest many/any veg during winter?

[Yabbies4me]

Just don't plant heavy feeders, fruiting plants etc, during winter... most of them are spring/summer plants anyway. Stick to lettuce, asian greens, peas etc during winter.

[RupertofOZ]

This might sound silly - but if the feeding drops off in winter, how does this effect the plant growth?
does this mean that I wouldn't be expecting to harvest many/any veg during winter?

Natures a wondeful thing Mangan.... the sorts of plants that grow during the winter months... have lower nutrient requirements... and/or have adapted a slower growth response... to reflect the nutrient availablity, sunlight etc...

I'm not having any trouble growing stuff through winter...

[ManganJ]

Nice one!!!! Cheers thanks for shedding some light here guys