Has anyone here ever raised fish for food?

I picked up 4 - 60 gal pickle drums today along with one that held peppers. 

One will be used as a solids settling tank. One will probably be used as a sump. 

I'm pretty sure nothing smells worse than a sealed black pickle drum that has been outside or stored in a conex box for God only knows how long. They were awful. The pepper drum wasn't too bad. 

They have all been washed. 

You have my interest now.  is your plan also to birth your own?  Buy Fingerlings?  Curious how you will plan that out....

In reply to Thinkkker :

Due to the hardiness, I'm going to start with Tilapia. I'm going to buy fingerlings from these people. https://lakewaytilapia.com/live-tilapia-for-sale.php

20 food grade fish are $53. That's a good number to start with. 

Food grade fish should grow to 1-2 pounds in 6-8 months. 

I hope you start a build thread. It would be fun to follow along!

In reply to dyintorace :

I will. Probably Saturday. 

Yes. Fish farm build thread!

Im hooked.

NOHOME said:

Im hooked.

Dad jokes...

In in-laws owned and operated a catfish farm in South Georgia for 20 years.  Six ponds, each about 2 acres.  It was a lot of work, somewhat like dairy farming in that attention had to be paid on a daily basis.  Oxygen levels monitored multiple times a day.  Feeding. Breeding and restocking. Harvesting.  Processing.  Draining and cleaning ponds.  Whew!

Having built some KOI ponds for customers, I do believe that scaled down from a complete farm, and building a complete eco-system, with bio-filters, proper plants to harvest the nitrogen, deep enough to provide protection from predators, waterfalls (for oxygen), etc.  you can be successful.

I say go for it, and do a thread.

Thinkkker said:

You have my interest now.  is your plan also to birth your own? 

While Toyman obviously possesses a wealth of talents, I do not believe that the ability to birth fish is among them.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Stop trying to limit others.  This is 2022 and he can do it if he wants too!

In reply to Thinkkker :

While I appreciate the vote of confidence, SC has a ways to go before they don't lock you up for identifying as a fish and giving birth to them. 

And for those whom are interested. 

Aquaculture? Aquaponics? Fish Farming? Call it what you want.

I'm thinking that if I were to seriously do this, I'd be aiming to ultimately raise walleye.  Ridiculously expensive to sell, even where you can go catch them in a lake.  

In reply to stroker :

Walleye require water temps in the 65 to 70 degree range. That would require some expensive chillers down here in the south. I'm stuck with warm water fish.