Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How long do you purge a pond fish in fresh clean water before it is ready to be cooked? Some places on the net have said that you need to starve it for a week or so others say just a day or two.

One farm I went to put the barra in the purging tank on Sundays, and harvested on a wednesday, so 3 nights/4days

Hi Johnnie

I have read anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks purge for fresh water fish. You would need a seperate tank with a fresh water source with a filtering system.
I would suspect longer periods if you feeding duckweed or other plant material.

i'm sure i read somewhere that increasing the salinity also helps with purging

Why do you need to purge fish?

I've heard of fish farmers who use pond culture doing it to get rid of the muddy taste. This is unnecessary if your fish are large enough to fillet. You simply trim any sign of fat from the fillets - the muddy taste is concentrated in the fat. Get rid of the fat and you get rid of the muddy taste.

with my system, i am intending to not purge, as i will only be taking out one or two from the system. I look at it like eating a wild caught fish, as they arent purged

It is suggested that the unnatural foods taint the taste of the fish and it is for this reason that that are purged.

The Barra that I ate from my system tasted fantastic, I didn't have a sample of purged fish to compare, but it certainly tasted good to me..

The silver perch may be different, I haven't tried them yet, as I can't bring myself to eat the really large ones from one system, and the crop in my flood and drain aren't quite ready yet... When I do start eating them, I'll be just pulling them straight out and eating them to begin with, though I might try sticking a couple into another tank with a bubbler for a few days as a comparison.

If you were going to harvest your whole system at once then it would be a simple process of, stop feeding for a few days before harvest..

steve pictures joel taking abite out a fish he has just netted

When I was a boy in the UK, my granny would always purge some river and lake fish such as pike, or redfin perch, whereever the water was not clear. But trout in fast flowing freshwater streams, she would cook the day it was caught.

MMMM... I remember her pickled freshwater eels!