Cage Culture of Fish With a Twist

Reader Contribution by Kenneth Rust
Published on March 24, 2014
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I always enjoy the innovation that I see with the Mother Earth Fair community and I wanted to approach this second part of the cage culture discussion from the standpoint of innovation. I think that there is room to incorporate sustainability through innovation in rearing fish in cages.

Coosa Catfish Cages was a small business in Coosa County, Alabama, that Shep Phillips operated. He was my friend and great asset to his community. We worked on projects and trade shows together during my beginning adventures in pond management in 1994. Shep was involved with the local water district, as well as Auburn University extension system, and wanted to develop a way for landowners to profit by growing fish in their small ponds. With its rolling hills and plenty of rainfall most years, central Alabama has a lot of ponds in dammed-up ravines. While these ponds supply water for wildlife, irrigation, and livestock, Shep had something more entrepreneurial in mind.

He developed an ideal cage to raise a crop of fish in these ponds, taking materials, mesh size, predator protection, and ease of handling into consideration. He kept a rectangle of 3-inch PVC pipe frame suspended from pine trees in the front yard, where he assembled cages. When his young grandson got too rowdy, he found himself placed inside the suspended finished fish cage as a giant “playpen” 4 feet deep, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long. The nylon mesh was a sturdy black 1-inch diamond, and capable of holding a good crop of fish (or a grandson). After the unit was assembled, he removed the PVC and was able to ship or deliver the collapsed cage; it could be reassembled with locally purchased PVC for the frames.

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