Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Okay, I finally harvested some fish. Three, to be exact.

Here are some observations:
The catfish were much less slimy than those that I have caught while fishing, and they weren't as strongly scented.
They also were much less fatty than others I have caught and bought at the store.
They were tasty in soup, but they were a bit of a different texture, not sure if they were overcooked, or if it was due to the lack of fat/ or the freshness?

All in all, these three fish weighed about 4 lbs pre-cleaning. Two were about 1.5 lbs each, one was about 1 lb.(A little less) Biggest one was around 15 inches in length.



Next time I'm going to try frying a few.

I really love Thai style fried Catfish, I want to give that a shot eventually.

Nice, good to see when you can finally enjoy fish! I had one that was 17lbs. after about 5 years. It started as a 4" fingerling!

Hey Dstjohn! Good to hear from you!

Yeah, it was definitely a nice highlight!

Have you noticed anything different between your cats and store bought or caught catfish?

These had a good amount of meat on them, but it was pretty lean.

How is your last batch of tilapia going?

Nice one Will, well done.
It’s interesting your comments on the fat content as I’ve found the opposite true with the fish I see grown here.
What do you feed the fish and in what quantity?
Do you have any salt in your system? This would contribute to the slime coat.

Hey Skeg!

Thanks!

So we usually buy catfish for soup, and when it cools down, it gets super gelationous, almost like gelatin!
This time, it didn't really do that. Something that I just thought about is that the store bought fish is whole, and dead when purchased, so it probably hasn't been bled. I decided to bleed these ones. I wonder if the blood would make any difference? I know blood is used as a thickening agent in some soups/ stews.

I have salted the system several times, the last time was probably in June or July, and it was up to about 2.5-3ppt, according to my refractometer.

It wasn't that they weren't slimy at all. They had a slime coat. It just seemed to be less so than the last wild one I had caught. Then again, I was wearing gloves this time around, maybe that changed my perception. I did have to wash slime off the gloves.

They have been fed Aquamax (4000 or 500 I think, they both come in blue bags, and I just got whatever my local mill had) they do have different protein contents with one being 36 and one being 41- and more recently, Star Milling Pond Diet (35% protein) because the mill is only open for wholesale now. I started feeding them the aquamax again, maybe it will have an effect...

They are usually fed twice a day, in the morning and late afternoon/evening. Sometimes 3 times. But mostly twice.
I'm not sure the exact amount they get, but it is a decent sized container, and they finish the food in a few minutes... Maybe I should feed them more to get that fat content I'm craving......

Don't get me wrong, they were good, just not very oily compared to other cats I've eaten.

I had a taste test at one time comparing store bought to homegrown. Everyone preferred the homegrown (breaded and fried). I prefer to let them get bigger than 1 lb as the fillets are better and bigger, but that takes an extra year.

There is a lot of waste when filleting, but sometimes I use the remaining carcass for soup.