Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i was looking at Silver Carp would this be a good fish for AP???? what about taste??

I don't know about the particular variety you are talking about but here is a recipe some one once told me for carp.

Take a pine board and cut it to the same length as the fish. Lay the fish on the pine board and bake it. Eat the board.

I jest but jokes like this sometimes mean something.

The one I heard was "wrap the carp in a layer of clay and bake until the clay is dry. Crack it open, remove the fish, eat the clay."

Euell Gibbons experimented with wild carp (after rounding them up on horseback near the Rio Grande) trying to improve the flavor. Tried several methods and found one system of cleaning and cooking that worked well and brought flavor up above that of bass, according to that section of his book "stalking the wild asparagus". I believe they simply removed all bones from the meat and found that did the trick, but it has been 30 years and my memory is a bit unclear. Also, as a friend of mine points out with catfish, the food and water quality have huge impact on flavor: growing them in AP may make all the diff. Even goldfish (a species of carp) may taste great if they can't find horrible stuff to eat and have to make do with good food.

Carp supplies a substantial amount of protein to well over a billion people,,,I would have thought by lack of choice rather than preference,,,,BUT,, when taking my Viet gal on a nice water-park,,zoo , type tour of Saigon,,she specifically selected the carp soup,,,I spat it out,,, ( NICELY,,,when shewasn't looking),,to me it tasted like MUD.
Vietnamese call it Ca ( fish) Chep ( carp),,,I later joked Ca cheap,,,or Ca Chep wood ( Chep being a famous brand of wooden pallets in Aus).
That would be the one and only meal I ever tasted in Vietnam that was not excellent.

One man's rubbish is anothers treasure.

Yep, the mud flavor was exactly what Gibbons was trying (successfully, according to him) to remove. But I guess the simplest thing would be to learn to like the flavor...apparently it is possible as you point out. Aren't humans amazing?

I certainly found Vietnamese women amazing:)

On a more serious note,,Vietnam,,amazing place,,people and culture wonderful,,,definately worth a visit ( or in my case 9 visits).

In central, eastern Europe carp is a common fare for lack of better fish,
apart of a trout, occasional pike and few others.

It is netted out in early winter before the lakes or dams freeze over,
put into specially prepared purging dams and by Xmas there’s not a hint of that muddy flavor. But you still get all the bones.

Together with baked goose it’s part of Xmas dinner.

On our last visit 5 year ago the common carp was being replaced by “Amur” carp (Cyprinus carpio haematopterus).
http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/4159/amur-carp-variety-no-small-fry-for-aquaculturists

Looks like evidence for the nurture over nature to me! Carp in a clean environment (like AP) seems even more like something we should try.

hey there,

i did try my AP carp and i must say i didn't like it, it was not muddy, bud had a very unpleasant taste

i made a fish omlet(grinded fish meat with bread crumbles, garlic, parsley and other spices)
it was not bad but i wasn't hungry at the time and it was just a very strange taste, maybe with less proteins they'll taste better, i'll see in a few months. + The skin was hard to remove, hard to fillet and i got little meat from a 250g fish

but if some hunger comes around, i'll be more then happy to eat them:)


maybe it was my feed's fault, as i was feeding them high protein food all the time(trout feed), recently i changed to carp feed, cereals mainly as the high protein food was suppose to clog the carps digestive tract as it is longer then trouts.

good day

In Hawaii I can get grass carp. I don't know if its the smae as silver carp but alot of asian restaurants serve them as a specialty here. I want to give them a try because they are strict herbivores and supposed to be able to eat even straight grass clippings. Would be amazing to supply all their feed straight from any excess AP produce and water discharge to grass fields.

when I was a teenager i used to fish for carp in the canning river just for the fun as I love fishing and as a teen it helped to keep me and a few mates out of a bit of trouble, any way we did catch a few that were around 1kg mark and I have been thinking about trying to catch a few and see how they go in a separate AP system, if there no good on the table they might make a good feed suppliment for barra or something, might be worth just keeping a few and spowning them every year and feeding the fry or fingerlings to barra?
just a thought

I live in Thailand. Asian Carp have at least 4 different varieties. The main one that is eaten here is Silver Carp. My wife's family raise them, but they do not breed in ponds or lakes. They taste quite good. They are eaten when the are small, a quarter to half pound. Here they are used to make fish sauce, which can stink pretty bad but is very tasty. My mother-in-law minces the silver carp with a clever. Then she mixes in salt and garlic. It is fermented for about 2-3 days then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. It is delicious. She also salts them and sundries them before frying. Again delicious.

I am planning on moving back to the USA and I would like to find a supplier to buy from as these fish will only spawn in moving water. They will reproduce as quickly as or even faster than tilapia.

However, I do not like them steamed, or any fish for that matter. The meat gets mushy and muddy but fried they are delicious. The meat is not flaky but has more of a heavy meaty consistency which is why it is the only fish they use to make Bplaa Som (sour fish).

Thanks for the info bob. The meals sound awesome. Thai food is my favourite. The catfish still could breed in aquaponics if water flow is all that is required. Just use continous flow into the fish tank. Or increase pumping rates during breeding season to simulate this.

Btw I hope redeye is still alive for the reply

Hello,
I have tried carp in the past and they have their advantages.it doesn't matter if the water gets hot or cold they still survive. If the air pump dies they are the last to go I have a friend from Africa and he said they ate delicious .He wants to get some if he can. If you cook them with the skin on it just falls off when they are cooked. They will eat lupins and as I can get lupins for free that appeals to me. I soak the lupins for twelve hours first . When you tip the morning ones in you put the night time ones in to soak. If you pickle them it gets rid of the small bones ,they go soft like sardines do. I may try them again but I am happy with what I am doing at the moment.