Fish in Aquaculture

 

I think it is a good thing, to spend time researching the areas of a project, which I know the least about.  With me and Aquaponics, that has got to be Fish.  So I came here to Milemead Fisheries, which is situated in the tranquil Lumburn valley, close to a small hamlet, called Mill Hill, near Tavistock, in Devon.

The owner very kindly let me wonder about, taking photos, so I promised him in return I would include a link to his website, so here it is:

http://www.milemeadfisheries.com/

It is a really marvelous place.  I could sum it up by saying lots of lakes and trees.  But trying not to get distracted by the plant life; I endeavoured to learn about how fish is produced in Aquaculture systems, like this one.

Of course Aquaculture systems need to be constantly replenished with fresh water, to stop a build up of ammonia, which is contained in fish urine.  A build up of this chemical would be very detrimental to the well-being of the fish.  Here; the huge lakes are fed by a sequence of fresh water springs, I was informed.  Originally I had assumed it to be fed by the near by river, but this method ensures that no agricultural chemicals will enter this delicate Eco-system.

I was also told that today was a bad day, if I wanted to see any fish coming up, close to the surface, because it was sunny.  Fish (I was told) feel more comfortable coming up to the surface in dull or overcast weather, since presumably there would be less chance of predators.

 

At this fishery; Anglers actually pitch up tents and stay here.  There were quite a few tents dotted about, all green and camouflaged.  It's like angler heaven here.

Well, seen Aquaculture in action.  Learnt quite allot today, but I feel that I still must research this topic allot more, so I can be clear in my mind; what I want to put in my ponds in my Aquaponics venture.  If that means visiting more lovely places like this; than I guess that can only be a good thing.

Joe and the Giant Fish

An Example of just how big Native Fresh Water Fish Can Get:

The fish show here, were not grown in an Aquaponics set up, but caught by my mate Joe, presumably in some North Devon Lake.  It just demonstrates how big they can actually get.  These fish were all grown in cold water, they would probably have taken years to get this size.  
Of course in a pond, in a warm poly tunnel; they are going to grow very much more quickly and by all accounts; they should be able to get just as big as these incredible specimens.

Low in fat and full of Protein; fish is much better for your health, than most other types of meat.

On my trip to see a fishing lake, for myself today; I saw no fish, the owner told me, this was because it was sunny and apparently they like overcast weather, before they feel safe enough to come to the surface.  I have noticed that in all Joe's pictures; the weather is gloomy.

I might know allot about plants, but I really know very little about fish, other than pond and fish tank varieties.  This certainly is an area, which I must research further and any input from Joe, will be extremely helpful.

Growing Salad Vegetables in Aquaponic Systems

 

 Green Vegetables

Growing Salad vegetables in an Aquaponic system can be a very profitable crop, because they are very quick and easy to grow, many taking only a month from germination to cropping; in the heat of a poly tunnel or green house and because they don't grow very tall; they can be grown on shelves, which utilizes the available space to it's maximum.

There are a huge variety of green vegetables to choose from, which are often difficult to grow out side and are hard to find, particularly any which have been grown organically, like these will be.

Choices of green vegetables to grow would include tropical and Chinese Vegetables.  These fetch a high price and are growing in popularity, so they are a good thing to be getting into.

Any good seed catalogue always have a very good choice of these exotic salad vegetables.  

Exotic vegetables can be very tricky to grow in a traditional vegetable garden, in soil, largely due to the temperature and them not being able to with stand slug attacks, as our traditional vegetables can.

But in the perfect environment, provided with an Aquaponic system, as you can see; all appear to do very well indeed.

Growing Weed

Ganga

In the future Hydro & Aquaponic systems will be used mostly for growing food, mainly green vegetables and fresh water fish.  But currently these systems, particularly Hydroponics; are mostly used for growing Cannabis, for sale on the black market.

Of course, if I am to be selling Aquaponic products, then I must realise that ganga growers, who are currently using Hydroponic systems are potentially my biggest group of customers, so long as I can convince them that Aquaponics has far greater advantages for them and would increase their profits allot + do the same for reducing waste and cost.  I do not plan to grow weed as a commercial crop my self though.

It is perfectly legal to sell equipment used to grow these plants.  It's even legal to sell the seeds.  The law in this country is very draconian & strange.

Grow Lights

The two pictures above show weed being grown under artificial lighting, which costs a fortune in electricity, but weed-growers have to hide what they are doing because it's prohibited.  Also, because of Prohibition; the price is high enough to justify all that extra cost.  The result of course is allot of electricity usage, which would not be necessary if the plant was legal. 

Below is a picture of out door skunk.  A more hardy faster flowering variety, which can be grown out side in cooler climates.

Cannabis is a light sensitive plant.  It's life cycle is triggered by hours of daylight per day; this is another reason why growers use lights; so they can do a number of crops per year, rather than just the one. 

Other commercial growers use artificial sodium lighting for many other crops, including cut flowers, such as Chrysanthemums, usually just to extend the daylight hours in greenhouses during the winter.  

Cannabis likes 18 hours of light to grow and 12 hours of light to flower.  It is triggered to flower in the Autumn, which is fine in warmer parts of the world, but here, in the UK; Autumn means frost and the subsequent death of any unprotected plants outside and subsequent loss of the crop.

Fish

 What kind of Fish to choose

It is proving to be quite a difficult decision to make; deciding what type/s of fresh water fish or other creatures to have in my Aquaponic System.

To the right is a picture of some Catfish.  Many fresh water species of Catfish exist, lots of them are tropical.  They fetch quite a good price, I believe.

The chip shop in the near-by village of Horrabridge sells battered Catfish, from Vietnam, and have been doing so for years.  They seem to sell well.  I think organically grown ones, from an Aquaponics system, produced locally, in the UK, would be better for them though.

My choices are:

Tropical Fish

There are two possible markets here; tropical ornamental fish, which I could breed and sell to pet shops or Tropical river or lake fish, meant for the table.

Just a quick peep in a freezer compartment in any Bangladeshi shop, will give you many wonderful examples of what I mean, by tropical table fish.  You see; because Bangladesh is a mostly flat country, if you want a pond, all you have to do is to dig a hole.  The water table is high and Little else needs to be done.  The result of this is that Bangladeshis eat allot of fresh water fish.  It must cost them quite a bit to import these fish, frozen, all the way from South Asia, so perhaps they'd like to buy them fresh and organic, from me instead.

Ornamental Fish

I am thinking here; mainly things like Goldfish and Koi carp.  Again with pet shops being possibly my main buyers, or I could sell them directly to the public.  They are fairly easy to breed.  I have bread them before and there is a huge market for them here in the UK.

River Fish

Here; I am thinking Trout and Carp, something like that.  Always popular and usually very expensive and out of the price range for most people.  Aquaponics will change all that.

There are also many other species of river fish from all over the world.  The effect warm water has on a cold blooded creature, is to make it grow much faster, making me even more competitive with traditional Trout farms, etc.

Other kinds of fresh water creatures

Here, I am thinking along the lines of fresh water Prawns and Cray- fish, maybe even Eels, who knows.  I have seen lots of videos on you tube, with such systems successfully put in place.

***

What ever I choose, I would appear to have a very competitive edge on any market I entered into.

Each poly tunnel should have at least two massive ponds, each running the whole length of the tunnels.  So perhaps I will try a few different things.  I certainly prefer the idea of having edible fish better, but I think I would  like to have a variety of different species to try.