Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Trapping minnows for food

All the ditches around me are full of small minnows. They are called Mosquito fish. I was not able to find a thread on minnow traps or catching minnows. I can catch them like crazy with a dip net along with glass shrimp. I grew up in a coastal town and there were several bait shops. Several people made a living running minnow traps. Now they were not catching small minnows, they were catching mud minnows, which are about 3" to 4" long and they would sell them to the bait shops. They would check the trap once a day to remove the minnows and add bait. I wonder if you could run traps to supplement food for your aquaponic fish tanks.

I am hoping to feed any fish I get with:
1) Minnows
2) Black Soldier Flies
3) Worms
4) Spent grain from brewing beer
5) Yeast slurry from homebrewed beer and my winery

I should have my license for my winery any day now (it has been a 13+ month long process)

I am going to make a few minnow traps out of some old screen I have.

absolutely......

you could use a throw net aswell.....

Is there a risk with introducing pests or diseases by adding wild food from an uncontrolled source?

I have a small lake and fairly stagnant stream near me and was wondering about doing the same thing.

The way I see it...there is a risk to everything...

But Honestly.....in my system there is salt , to a certain degree....the plants love to suck it up....the salt is ment to act like an anti biotic...and a water cleanser...( I think )

I feed my fish freshly caught fish from the inlet a few Km's from where I live..I just chop the fresh fish on the side of the tank ...and they go beserk....

These Barra eat just about anything I tryed so far.

Pea's, fish feed, fresh fish, prawns, prawn shells, pilchards...

So far all is great. The only death from feeding has occured due to the fish eating a peice of feed that wouldn't go down it's throat...and chocked

Okay, I took the typical clover perch tray and shrunk it down to minnow size.
12" x 12" x 3" and took it to the park today. I was there for 1 1/2 hours and I caught 31 blue gill fingerlings.
They are home in a small tank. I hope to have the 45 gallon tank up tomorrow. I can take a pictur of the trap and I did draft up plans. It is different from the one O posted above. Anyway, I am happy

Well done...I caught all my first lot of fish for the tank....It was fun....and I over stocked but it was still fun