I have to believe the investment is expensive in time and effort...
I have not myself, but when I lived in Nigeria I was mostly out in the jungle and I saw several subsistence farms where they did. I believe it was Tilapia.
What was interesting is that they seem to have done this as some kind of a micro eco-system. It involved chickens, a garden plot and the fishpond. Not sure where the chickens came into it, but there was water transfer between the fishpond and the garden plot. The ponds were not very big, maybe 400 to 600 square feet max and 4 feet deep? No idea of what kin of yield this would produce.
There are a couple of trout farms in my area and the fish I have had from themwas fine. They are acre+ size ponds and I see a lot of plumbing and bubblers to aerate the water. No idea how they deal with waste. Food is in the form of pellets cast upon the water. Looks capital intensive to me and I can only imagine the environmental oversight.
Tilapia tastes like dirt.
Turns out there's a reason for that. Animal manure is commonly used as tilapia feed in certain countries whose name starts with "C" and ends with "hina."
1988RedT2 said:Tilapia tastes like dirt.
Turns out there's a reason for that. Animal manure is commonly used as tilapia feed in certain countries whose name starts with "C" and ends with "hina."
Farmed raised tilapia is likely worse for you than just taking a fish oil pill with your meal.
In the early 1980s, my family worked with the SC Dept. of Natural Resources and built a 3-acre shrimp pond. We would flood it on a spring tide and close it off to where only the top 12" of water would go in and out with the tide. That water ran through a screen to keep the fish out. Come late summer, on a low tied, we would dump the entire pond through a bag seine. The usual harvest was right at 1500# of shrimp plus some monster fish. The entire family would be on hand to head shrimp and clean fish to get them ready to freeze. It was an enormous amount of work.
We ran the pond for about 5 years while SCDNR was doing its testing. A couple of years later, a seafood store opened across from the entrance to the road into the farm. We haven't run the pond since beyond fishing in it. It does still raise some nice-looking fish.
There was a local man on the island who tried it on a commercial scale but competing with Vietnam and China while dealing with DHEC shut him down within a few years.
NOHOME said:
I have not myself, but when I lived in Nigeria I was mostly out in the jungle and I saw several subsistence farms where they did. I believe it was Tilapia.
What was interesting is that they seem to have done this as some kind of a micro eco-system. It involved chickens, a garden plot and the fishpond. Not sure where the chickens came into it, but there was water transfer between the fishpond and the garden plot. The ponds were not very big, maybe 400 to 600 square feet max and 4 feet deep? No idea of what kin of yield this would produce.
There are a couple of trout farms in my area and the fish I have had from themwas fine. They are acre+ size ponds and I see a lot of plumbing and bubblers to aerate the water. No idea how they deal with waste. Food is in the form of pellets cast upon the water. Looks capital intensive to me and I can only imagine the environmental oversight.
Farmed trout has been around for a long time- when I worked at a resort 35 years ago, we served farm trout from Idaho. If one can figure out how to incorporate trout into an aquaponics system- that would be really nice.
From my reading, talapia is normally chosen because it's so robust to grow.
Lots of people in the South raise catfish in ponds on their land. It involves feeding the catfish with Purina Catfish Chow , harvesting them, and getting them to a pre-arranged market. If you order catfish in a restaurant it probably was raised on someone's farm pond.
Catfish or tilapia would be great. Also you could just stock them from local water. Any decent sized "koi" pond or swimming pool could be used. Just keep them fed and have some structures in the water.
I remember reading about a place that did hydroponic vegetables and fish in an old factory. Huge tanks, water circulated between, fish lived on the stuff from the plants, plants were fertilized by fish poo. I presume it would be heavy dough to get set up like that.
I want to say it was Detroit, one of the "Making use of an empty GM factory" things.
Edit: Aquaponics, its called.
alfadriver said:From my reading, talapia is normally chosen because it's so robust to grow.
What you mean to say is that they tolerate foul conditions better than other species.
Streetwiseguy said:I remember reading about a place that did hydroponic vegetables and fish in an old factory. Huge tanks, water circulated between, fish lived on the stuff from the plants, plants were fertilized by fish poo. I presume it would be heavy dough to get set up like that.
I want to say it was Detroit, one of the "Making use of an empty GM factory" things.
Edit: Aquaponics, its called.
You can get into aquaponics on a GRM level. I've seen a lot of people using old IBC totes as the pond, a cheap pump for circulation, then gravity to get the fish poop to the garden. With some plants you could even get away with bare roots into the tank itself.
My property just isn't setup well enough to be able to do it easily. If I cut back on chicken space or when we're done using a swimming pool I might look into it again.
1988RedT2 said:alfadriver said:From my reading, talapia is normally chosen because it's so robust to grow.
What you mean to say is that they tolerate foul conditions better than other species.
A "bible health ministry".. Really?
NOHOME said:
What was interesting is that they seem to have done this as some kind of a micro eco-system. It involved chickens, a garden plot and the fishpond. Not sure where the chickens came into it, but there was water transfer between the fishpond and the garden plot. The ponds were not very big, maybe 400 to 600 square feet max and 4 feet deep? No idea of what kin of yield this would produce.
They were probably processing the chickens and feeding the chicken entrails to the fish.
RevRico said:1988RedT2 said:alfadriver said:From my reading, talapia is normally chosen because it's so robust to grow.
What you mean to say is that they tolerate foul conditions better than other species.
A "bible health ministry".. Really?
Regardless of your thoughts on that notion, they do cite some very authoritative sources, including the nih and epa.
Tilapia done right is not bad at all. I've seen what some of you guys eat so don't pretend to be above it. ;)
Catfish is freakin delicious.
Tilapia eat poop(and other non-poop things). Many fish will eat poop. Tilapia are used to clean up after many other animals. Sounds yucky, but its safe to eat and since its so prolific, and there is no shortage of filth needing to be gobbled up and humans always need more food.
I llke tilapia and still eat it. Im now thinking about putting a fish pond in. I probably wont put a toilet seat over it though.
I've seen references to Bass being raised in farms but I never hear about it actually being done. I don't think I've ever had bass but my impression is that it's the best eating of the conventional "farm fish". Am I wrong on that?
stroker said:I've seen references to Bass being raised in farms but I never hear about it actually being done. I don't think I've ever had bass but my impression is that it's the best eating of the conventional "farm fish". Am I wrong on that?
If you're going to go unconventional, go with the best tasting freshwater fish, walleye. I imagine you need a lot of space though.
For serious though, go into the weird world of homesteading YouTube. There's a lot of bulldog to sort through, but it'll give you a clear idea on where people have succeeded, and more importantly, where they've failed trying to do this.
The cost of feeding the fish to get them to eating size is the biggest consideration here.
Tilapia and catfish are often raised because, as noted, they'll eat just about anything.
I love homesteading youtube where they show this all off! I'll try to remember to post links to some channels when I get home. What I've personally seen, is that most feed their fish via dog/cat food/Feed corn along with kitchen scraps, and use the fish water in an aquaponic system. There's also some pond systems that function naturally, where one "side" of the pond is for insect breeding that the fish cannot access but will always provide a ready source.
My college actually has an aquaponics and renewable lab that I've been considering taking classes from.
The issue with bass is that they've carnivorous, eat a massive amount of biomass a day and prefer live food. Catfish will scavenge food and can be used to dispose of waste. Catfish farming may start slowing down though, as blue catfish have taken over the Chesapeake as Maryland and Virginia's DNR have put bounties on them as they're throwing the ecosystem out of balance and pushing out native gamefish while feasting on blue crab.
You'll need to log in to post.