aquaculture

[unionguy]

So, I moved into a house about 2 years ago. The previous owner decked over an in=ground pool. Does anyone know if I could raise some fish in this kind of environment? It doesn't get much light, only through the cracks in the board. If it's possible, where could I learn how to do this?

thanks

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[receo]

An acquaintance has a private lake not 20 miles from Portland. Probably 150' long, 75' wide and 30' at the deepest point. He stocks it with very nice size trout. A couple of summers ago he lost most of the fish due to the high temperature of the water. Stealthy plumbing now pulls cold water from a nearby creek to cool it when it gets to hot. Point being, you better have access to a lot of cold water or a breed of fish that can handle large temperature fluctuations. Good luck and go get em!!

 

[Squidly]

Tilapia, and trout pond filter maybe? There are lots of books on aquaponics as well.

 

[CoastRange57]

Without a complete light source and a system that exchanges the water and keeps it in the right temp range, you are wasting your time. Any type of decent producing food fish is going to require complete with some shade of course, but not a complete covering.

 

[458Socom]

You would need either a flow through system or a filter system to take care of the waste produced by the fish.

 

[Squidly]

It can be done. Lots of people are doing it. There are lots of books available. Do your own research.

 

[AMProducts]

The big trick here is to pick a hardy variety of fish... a lot of people use tilapia for this as they tolerate a whole lot of conditions other fish dont. Tilapia are the main fish species in the salton sea, which says a lot about their hardiness.

I think the big thing here is going to be picking a variety of fish, and then working out the rest of the systems to suit that...

 

[Silver Fox]

+1 for tilapia. The only show from 'Preppers' that I thought was pretty educational was a guy in AZ who tuned his swimming pool into some sort of equally balanced Eco system. He had chickens pooping in the deep end to feed the fish, then pumped fish poop water from the pool through his plants hydroponics bedding system. These plants in turn help feed his chickens. Actually pretty cool how he had set it up. I am sure you could find the episode on Netflix or any other streaming entertainment outfit.

SF-

 

[458Socom]

Here is a filter system I built for my 3400 gallon pond, it is basically a waste water treatment plant. It has a 270 gallon settling chamber that settles out the solid waste, then goes through a 100 gallon moving bed filter that processes the ammonia into nitrites and then non toxic nitrates.

 

[1stklass]

Tilapia will not survive the winter. the temperature will get too cold. Trout will not survive the summer if the temperature gets above 68 degrees or so. Bass can handle both hot and cold but will not do as well in poorer water conditions. first off you will need a filtration system. Keep the water flowing by using an air pump, its the cheapest way to not only add oxygen but also circulate the water. An air stone at the bottom of your pond will lift the water especially as the bubbles rise and expand. You can use gravel on the bottom of the pool for filtration but once a year will probably have to vacuum sediment out. It is easier to put an external filtration system outside the pond but i would still put gravel in the bottom in case of a power outage you still have natural filtration and can still circulate the pond off a 12 volt battery and 12 volt airpump Sturgeon are your best bet hands down for Oregon but require a high protein diet. Their feed to meat conversion ratio is 80% or better if your water temperature is above 64 degrees. they can handle temperature ranges from 34 degree's to almost 80 degrees although my sturgeon started showing signs of stress at 76 degrees. They do especially well in low light conditions as their natural environment is largely deeper water where little to no light penetrates although they range throughout the different water levels. They can survive a very wide range of water conditions. but make sure the water you add is not some sort of treated city water. I will be breeding mine this summer and if i have a successful breeding i'll let you know. there are no more places left in Oregon to legally acquire sturgeon so i am trying to change that.

 

[kickstart my heart]

You may be able to do catfish in there too. Tilapia are a good choice though. Trout aren't very tough fish. Growing up, we raised trout in 3 ponds (smallest pond was probably 20'x20, next biggest was around 20'x60', and biggest was probably 40'x200'. If the water got too hot in the summer (even in the big one that was close to 8' deep), it'd kill off a lot of them. We ended up running a pump to recirculate the water during the summer when the creek flow was low. Then the neighbors up stream redid their lower yard and pushed a pile up against the side of the creek (which when it got high eventually took all of that dirt and turned into silt) which killed the fish. Blue herons did a number on them too.

 

[OEDub]

We live a bit too far north to raise Tilapia without having to work to keep them alive through the winter. 1stklass has some very good information posted.

 

[1stklass]

Thanks OEDub,

I have been studying NW compatible species for aquaculture for almost 3 years, specifically for a recirculating pond system. I settled on sturgeon. Their meat is the most valuable meat of any freshwater fish in oregon, almost twice as expensive as salmon, not to mention their value in caviar, averaging 75 dollars an ounce with some pushing 150 dollars an ounce. They are just about bullet proof when it comes to water temperature/quality. My sturgeon are pushing 8 feet long some of them, there are 20 of them (about 3000lbs total) in a 1/2 acre farm pond 7 feet deep and silted in. They love the silt. It wont kill them like it would trout, Really the only thing i have to make sure is that the air pump is running during the summer. I do plan on making it my business (sturgeon aquaculture)so i have done tons of research into the subject. If you are into prepping and have a pond i dont think you could find a better more hardy fish.

 

[revjen45]

A large mesh grate for garbage is a thought. Garbage goes on the grate, flies land on it and lay eggs, maggots eat the garbage get fat and fall off, fish eat the maggots. Repeat as necessary.