Backyard Fish Farming
 

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7144591_n.jpg


350 gallons each....

I am in NC

I want to raise fish. I am thinking Tilapia and Catfish, but am considering bream, bass...Over the winter I want to do rainbow trout!! Any recommendations where to order fish?

Would you do something different?

So, I have the tanks. What else do I need, filter pumps...screen over top?

Thank you

Here is a place you can order Tilapia from and I am sure they can answer questions about raising them in a backyard set up.

http://tilapiasource.com/zc/

I would go with tilapia or catfish over bream or bass because they can tolerate lower water quality.

Google "srac". That's Southern Regional Aquaculture Center. There should be some good info and links to more.

Get those things clean. I put catfish in barrels, didn't clean them good enough. They got ich and died.

Your catfish came infected with ich. Most likely stress is what caused it to kill them.

You'll need an aerator in such small containers. I lost my rainbow trout in a 15' pond over the winter for the first time in 12 years. This is the first year we didn't have kids ice fishing. We think not drilling holes in the ice and letting air in caused them to suffocate. The bullhead (small version of catfish) are fine.

You need a filter. You'll have fish waste and food floating around. The water will get dirty quickly.

How will you keep the water cool enough? I have one of these containers and access to more. Interesting idea.

The trout need cool oxygenated water. I think I'd try to keep catfish and tilapia alive before trying out trout.

I did an aquaculture class where we cut off the tops and used them as the grow tanks for plants. You should really check into goiung the aquaponics route. Then you can get double duty on your fish, save money on filtration and get winter veggies. Keep in mind that some of the tilapia you order are unable to breed, so if you are interested in that aspect be sure to ask. You might also check out doing red claw crayfish as well if you like the meat. They grow fast and have small claws using most of their energy to grow the parts I like to eat. They would work with tilapia, but not very well with cats. Might check out yellow perch as well.

If you can't tell, I have been really into the aquaponics this year. I have attended every class and read everything I can get my hands on as well as doing our own set up. Once we make the move onto our property in Arkansas I will be building a large scale setup to do the crayfish and a couple of other things. Mostly so I can do the crayfish as well as herbs and some veggies commercially.

I echo SANDC!!! Aquaponics solves so many problems with raising fish and it produces another food product, vegatables!!!! We have had success with Aquaponics. The times we have failed in Aquaponics is when we try to make it too complicated. It isn't that tough. PM me and I can tell you more about our system.

so dying for a aquaponics system! its really the only way to go.

I love the idea of the red claws they are on the banned species list here,boo. the officials worry they could be invasive? tillipia a good choice,so are cat fish as said above tolerate lower water quality. you need to balance things no matter the sit up, less oxygen = less food and vice versa. of course space is a limiting factor also even with good supply of oxygen,food and clean water space can limit grow out.

even though some fish do survive in less then ideal water conditions its best to provide the best if possible. again balancing act.

climate is a biggie too. here in Michigan freezing water is a huge issue for aquaculture.
you have to provide some heat just to even have your fish survive unless you are dealing with huge bodys of water. many species will not survive under 50 degrees , most tilipia and red-claws. another one i would like to raise is fresh water prawns,again cold intolerant.

though heat can be as bad as the cold, as trout need cold water and even warm loving fish can have to hot of water.

first thing I would do is locate a place to sit them up, if you could find a temporary way of providing shade would be a plus, but enough space to sit up grow beds and keep pipe runs limited,which will also limit you overall pump needs.of course grow beds will need sufficient light for growth. again its a lot of balancing.

you need to do a bit of reading and a lot of math. there are so many variables to consider.

I would say bream or similar pan fish even perch would be a good choice but in that small a sit up, I would forgo the predator fish. as long as they do not feel conducive to breed (blue gill make a nest) and you stock it accordingly and provide Ideal conditions they should grow out fine and they can take lower water quality too.

Wow great information!!

Geeez I wish I wouldn'ta thrown the tops away!!


Lets make this thing aquaponics then and get some crayfish!!

Very interesting. People pay out the rear end for crayfish at the super markets.. i could make a bit of money if i raised them.. hmmm

I started a thread down in Gardening & Plant Propagating - http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...d.php?t=392185 - and would love some comments on that,

I have seen interest in a topic just for Hydroponics/Aquaponics. Maybe we can encourage one to be set up?

I would love to start, what are the best information sources?

Let's start here!! These tanks can be found just about anywhere, I paid $20 a piece after some research...

So, I'm gonna raise Tilapia and Crayfish both in both tanks.

What's the next step, finding something to sit on top, and hold plants? What are the stipulations, holes in the bottom of the upper plant container? What will be used for the media, hydroton balls, soil?..... And if I grow plants in the top do I still need a filter and aerator?

If so, does anybody have any product recommendations?

Thanks for your help.

hydroton is pricey....

You will need a pump to get the water to the top, and you can build a bell siphon to get it back to the bottom. Rule of thumb for the pump is that your water needs to turn over 4 times per hour, so a 100 galloikn setup would require a 400gph pump.

The setup we had used medium sized rock for the bottom 2/3 and then hydroton for the top 1/3.

Some of the largest setups in the US are in the upper midwest. I will try to find the links to them and post up. For someone really interested in doing this somewhere with a cold winter, I have seen designs for a system that put the fish into the ground in a lined hole in the greenhouse and heated their water. This made heating the water cheaper, and in turn was the primary for heating the small greenhouse.

CLEAN those tanks first.
 

All kinds of toxic and non toxic substances are put into those caged type tanks. Be sure to clean them out really really really well.
Fishead is right, any fish that you put into the tanks will come with their own set of parasites and diseases. It is the interaction of the fish with the environment and with the pathogen that will cause the problems.
Most beginners make the mistake of stocking too many fish and feeding too much. Heed the advice that you get from SRAC.

didn't think about the tanks as we have a wonderful source here for tanks that have either never been used or have been used for foodsafe stuff.

I can't quite read what was in them, but it is all but impossible to get most solvents to go away. They tend to leach back out over time. I am also big on throwing feeder goldfish in to condition my tanks. Saves me time and money.

I have no experience with fish farming. Those tanks are not that big... how many fish can you raise in each one? Just curious.

Where can you buy tanks like that.

Check on Craigslist. They're in the San Antonio CL all the time. Don't know about your area.

.

Holy Cat Fish! Is that $2 for one fingerling? I can buy a full size tilapia, already cleaned and filleted for less than $2. OK, it isn't home grown, so it isn't quite the same, but I don't see how you could possibly pay that much for fingerlings and come out any where near even.

Tilapia can be bred in an aquarium during the winter and then you can grow out the fry, putting them outside in the summer months, if you are not where it is warm all year long. So getting some breeders would be one way to go. For the price and care of the breeders, you could have hundreds of fry. They are mouth brooders, so it would be interesting also.

I am actually in the middle of designing a couple of kits that I hope to market that will use either a 29 or 40 gallon aquarium with 2 grow tanks. The kit will contain everything except for the aquarium. Figure this setup could be used to grow out fry or even as a decorative tank with the side benefit of growing some kitchen herbs and some smaller veggies.

In that 275 gallon tank, you could easily grow out 12-15 at the same size and then stage the same number in 2-3 different stages behind the first batch so you always have butchering size fish on tap.

So, my next step is to build the grow beds that will sit right on top of the tanks. I will fill the grow bed with gravel. I have never grown hydroponically, so my question is how do I get plant starts?

I will pump water from the fish tank above the grow bed and let it run back down into the fish tank. I will also put an aerator in each tank.

This is facinating!
 

My husband & I have a 50' X 60' building with water, a/c, & 6 patio doors on south side. Also a full bathroom & double door garage door. we've been talking about trying hydroponics. Can't think what else to use the building for except yard sales, yuck. We also have a 65' by 100' barn. Husband is disabled, likely to be in a wheelchair soon. Thought hydroponics would be something he could help with. I'll keep watching this thread! Thanks.:sing::help:

The beds for plants don't have to be on top of the fish tank.
Wooden stave construction tanks can be shop made (then make yourself a wooden hot tub while your at it, same construction).
Fish tanks placed in a green house co-locates the plants and fish, it also can extend the fish grow season. A simple wood fired water heater can extend the season even more.

Sandc- I don't understand your comment "In that 275 gallon tank, you could easily grow out 12-15 at the same size "
Also Sandc do you have any info on crawdad growing that you could share. Everything I've found requires acreage to farm. I cant find info on compact growth methods.

Were setting up a 50x16 green house on the south face of bldg. this yr. We've purchased 3 stainless steel 250gl tanks (I was going to build wood tanks but the ss tanks were $75 ea so I went with that for now)
Thanks
jim

Aquaponics and vermiculture. http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html

Familyman,
My wife and I used Paula Speraneo's ebb and flow system of Aquaponics and for a simple minded guy like myself, it worked great!!!!! We didn't use a filtration tank like Nelson and Pade do on theirs, just a return tank with a pump in it that sprayed the water back into the fish tank to oxygenate the water for the fish. Paula and her late husband Tom came up with a system that was simple to operate, simple to maintain and most importantly, worked!!! We used catfish and grew peas, radishes, spinach and lettuce in the Spring and the fall and we grew peppers, tomatilloes, tomatoes and Squash in the heat of the Summer. For growing media, we used gravel, our return tank was a feed bunk out of the pasture and our fish tank was a 700 gallon round stock tank. Our grow beds were made out of wood, but you could use kiddie pools or grow beds are available from Hydroponic stores. Holler at me if you want more info. PM me and I can send you photos of our system

Razorback21

We operated on a pound of live fish per two gallons of water. You might be able to stock at denser quantities than that, but we didn't risk it. We kind of looked at it like cattle stocking on pasture...find a happy medium and stick with it.

Hello. I really liked the video tour of that mans farm. The reason I want the growbeds on top of the tanks is so I only need 1 pump per tank, and for a smaller footprint.

Once I get the water in the tanks, growbeds built, and fish in the tanks....do I just use plant starts that were started in peat pucks or something?

We used both seeds (radishes, spinach) and we used plant cuttings for peppers, okra and tomatoes. That is the magic of aquaponics....you can do it both ways!

I dont understand a fraction of whatcher all talking about, Is there a dvd where I can see what there talking about as they talk about it. I have a source for the plastic caged bins. My boy works for a food corp and they use them with syrup

Don't worry Farm Boy Bill. I felt the same way.
^Is a good video to watch Farm Boy Bill

Basically, raise fish in a tank, fish poop in there, pump that water into a plant bed, the plants pull the nutrients out and "clean" the water, and pump that water back into the fish tank.

www.aquaponicscommunity.com

My comment about the 12-15 at a stage was meant to mean that I would personally have 12-15 fish at the full grown size with the same amount a month behind and the same amount a month behind that, always replacing the youngest group as I harvest out the oldest.

I will try to locate the info I have on the crayfish. They do awesome in a setup with stacks of short pvc pipes to provide them with spots to feel safe and hide. One of the reasons to choose the red claws is because they are not burrowers like some of the other species.

I'm designing my system...

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/page/...ening-rules-of

By what this website says, I'm not the best at math, but I'm trying to figure out how big of a grow bed I should have per tank? 32 square feet (2 55 gal drums halved vertically)? I want to stock the fish tank full but not intensely.

We use 2 gallons per pound of fish as a rule...We stock approx. 300 or so fingerlings in our 700 gallon stock tank (we figure about 600 gallons in our stock tank). We have found that if you stock too lightly, lettuce and spinach grow great, but fruiting plants, like tomatoes or okra, don't flower out and ultimately don't bear fruit. You stock too heavy and you can't keep your water ph balanced and fight water quality problems.

With this tank and stock density, we do 128 square feet of grow beds comfortably and go up to 192 feet with no adverse effects on plants or fish.

Thank you Razor....that's great! Any pics you can share?

What did you make your growbeds out of?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40167102@N00/

I hope my link took...I have pix on Flickr. We built ours out of wood, cheapskate me, but too many problems, like leaks. Going with hydroponic beds or kiddie pools after we move to our new place this Summer.