thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

We have a small koi pond (700 gal. or so)
and have been working on a Bigger connected Lower pond for a while now.
and I'm thinking it may be a good place to raise fish to eat.
like catfish or Bluegill

I found a cool site Too.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbth...stlist&Board=5

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Great idea, I have been considering this myself. The biggest problem is to find the right fish. They should grow quickly, be omnivorous, withstand cold temps (so no heating is required), and taste good. Most people go with Tilapia, although they can't withstand colder temps.

Generally, I think stocking with fish that are native to your location is the best way to go. If it is an omniverous fish, you can plant feed-plants on your property so you don't have to buy fish food..

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Yeah may have to heat it a few months...Maybe a solar heater?
Maybe a Solar powered filter pump too.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

You can also build-your-own large pond filter, all you need to buy that costs much is a pump and a bucket... search online for more info

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

We have one of those on our Koi pond made from a large clay Pot on a Pedestal (Water pumped from underneath) we stuff it with Straw cooler pads..and looks like a Fountain kinda with the water flowin out

I think they call it a skippy filter

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Bluegill are some good eatin. I'm interested how the quality of the meat is for fish raised this way. I know they've had plenty of problems with farm raised salmon not being up to snuff.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

check out the article on Tilapia within this ebay page:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...STRK:MESELX:IT

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

THe Urban Aquaculture Manual:
http://www.webofcreation.org/Buildin.../aqua/TOC.html

There's a lot of permaculture info on fish ponds:
http://www.permacultureinternational...earchterm=None
Ken these guys are in Northern California: http://www.everliner.com/index.php

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

carp are the most hardy.....try to find a way to make them taste good.....if your pond is clean...and you clean them good...with a fair amount of seasoning they should be edible......if this is for WTSHTF then your main issue is survival and i think carp give you the best chance to survive.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Is there actually money is racing fish?

How do you keep them in their lanes?

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Bunch of bones to deal with...

They are one bony fish...

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Some of the fish in Asia are unknown in the States but are delicious.

Tilapia, starting to get better known.

Bangus and milkfish (milky taste to the flesh) are pretty good also.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Bluegill are good eating, but I would wonder about stunted growth in confined spaces, I think they have a tendency for that. In the temperate zones of the US, I still think that channel catfish are the best converters of fish food to quality meat. Carp would do well converting food to body weight, but as a previous poster said, lots of bones.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Which is EXACTLY why they're chosen. If they escape into most Northern or Western streams they'll die off--so they're not a threat to native fish.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Aquaponics information will probably be useful research for you.

In Australia they grow fish in 2 different ways. They either grow 2 different strains over a 12 month period. They grow a cold temp and a warm temp fish at the appropriate time of the year. These type of fish should reach plate size in about 6 months. In Australia they grow barramuni and perch.

The other option is to grow 1 more hardy type over the full 12 months. The most common type of fish for this is trout.

You can grow cat fish, marron or fresh water crayfish, they are kind of like crawfish I guess, carp (which others have pointed out is not a very nice eating fish)

You can feed these fish with pellets, greens or even worms....subject to dietary needs of course. You could create a worm farm and feed the fish with excess worms. A properly functioning worm farm should double it's population every 90 days...... at least that's what I have been told AND the worms are not garden worms so you cannot dump them in your garden beds.

I have even thought that you could probably convert a swiming pool into a nice fish pond. Its got the filter system in place, you should be able to either convert the filter housing into a suitable bacterial filter or create/buy one and bolt it into the filter system piping.

Perhaps there is a business opportunity for all those foreclosed mac mansions with nice pools out back. Perhaps someone can grow MJ inside and outside you can grow the fish. Feed the MJ leftovers to the worms, then feed the worms to the fish. People will probably be getting wasted on the fish..... then they will get the munchies and want more to eat..... see where this is going?

I think the fish growing is an excellent idea. On my list of things to do. Don't know about the inside gardening aspect but the rest of the idea is good.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

I've lurked over at Pond Boss. Great place if you have a body of water to manage.

FWIW, I think 700 gallons is small to have a real productive fishing prospects. One acre of water (with an average four foot depth) per person is the figure I recall needed for a good year round fishing hole. And you have to manage the fish caught (catch too many small bluegills, the small mouth bass are screwed, catch too many smb and the bluegill population explodes).

When checking real estate acreage listings I keep an eye out for land with a pond on it. I figure a fishing pond would be a good emergency protein source.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

but the bones & fish guts & fish heads & fish skin - when added to the soil & properly composted - the plants LOVE that.

Re: thinking rasing fish for food and barter.
 

Totally Agree!!

:coolbeer: