Fish Farming

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Tilapia JOSEPH R. TOMELLERI

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Using inexpensive and readily available materials such as an aboveground swimming pool you can get fresh fish from your back yard. By raising your own fish, you can achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and provide a healthier diet for your family, says Steven Van Gorder, author of Small-Scale Aquaculture. It is as practical as gardening for producing food for the family.

Van Gorders book explains backyard aquaculture in detail, with plans and step-by-step instructions that can help you successfully raise fish even if your only source of water is a garden hose.

Puanani Burgess, executive director of the Waianae Coast Community Alternative Development Corp. in Waianae, Hawaii, says the methods look so simple that everyone thinks, Hey, I can do it. Fourteen years ago, Burgess group formed a micro-aquaculture cooperative, which hundreds of islanders have participated in over the years.

It is really ideal for small, rural communities like ours, Burgess says.

Historically, aquaculture has something of a bad reputation because it has been limited to large commercial facilities that require significant amounts of water and energy, and thus can be major sources of pollution. In contrast, Van Gorders systems blend 4,000-year-old cultural practices with refined modern techniques using minimal energy and water and put you in control of the purity and healthfulness of this food source. (For healthy and sustainable choices when you do buy seafood, see Fish and Your Health, Page 128. Mother)

There are several similarities between gardening and fish farming: Both plants and fish need food and warmth; just as certain plants favor different seasons, there are cold-hardy fish and heat-loving fish; and both sorts of gardens require regular maintenance you cant just scatter a handful of seeds or sprinkle a few fingerlings in a pond, then expect to harvest anything edible in a few months.

Van Gorder advises beginning fish farmers to start small no more than 100 fish the first few seasons. Once you master a few basics, you will be able to raise several species of fish in tanks, indoors or out, throughout the year, he says.

In the Waianae cooperative, for example, a few aboveground tanks can produce more than 300 pounds of golden tilapia every six months.

Types of Aquaculture

Here are the four aquaculture systems Van Gorder describes:

Cage Culture. This aquaculture method provides the simplest means of growing fish if you have access to a pond, Van Gorder says. He estimates a cage system could be built for about $100. The only cost is for cage materials, fish and feed.

In this system, a cage or pen made of plastic pipe and rigid netting is moored in any suitable body of water a pond, lake, stream or millrace and stocked with fingerlings that are fed until they reach a harvestable size.

If you have a farm pond, building a floating cage will provide enough fish to feed your family year-round, Van Gorder says. Channel catfish is the most common fish grown in cages; tilapia, trout, salmon and hybrid striped bass are other options.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print