Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes, I did, but I have had a complete re-think on this matter and no longer condone it, especially when leafy salad crops are involved. The commercial farmer who I built the system for is still using this method very successfully and saving a fortune on feed costs, but I am very uncomfortable with the potential for salmonella contamination (he users layers and there is also the possibility of eggs breaking and dripping into the water) and have publicly distanced myself from the practice.

The growth rates and food conversion rates of the fish are also far below what is achieved using a properly formulated feed. Also, it makes a terrible mess with constant clogging in pipes and valves from uneaten food, poop and feathers.

I would have an even stronger objection to using a mammal in the system, but I must add, it depends on the vegetable crops being grown.

Yep, I'm with you on this one Synapto... wouldn't use any warm blooded creature... especially if any fish or produce was intended for anything other than personal consumption...

And personally.. I wouldn't consume it...

I have seen illustrations in Permaculture books where in SE Asia pigs are housed over ponds to provide manure to the system.
It would need to be a big pond.

on a side note while being a little gross
In my travels in India most of the toilets had a pig
There was usually a hole in the back of the toilet where the pig could get his head in for a feed.
Tip;Don't eat the pork

It's one thing to keep fertility/manure in a system, it another to eat directly from is now effectively a cesspit. Sure some fish will eat is, but as is said above, there are then pathogen questions. Any activity like this adds something to system risks.

As a cost minimisation measure it works. Buying the cheapest product is always the best way to go. Chinese milk powder anyone?

Better to include the manure (concentrated fertility source) in BSF (or other fish food) production. You have the more complex system, with more steps, but it's safer too.

yea I don't see it as a joke.
here in Indonesia, people built chicken coop, or goat sheds above fish pond. apparently the fish either eats the poop directly, or let the poop fertilize the water to make more planktons and other edible little critters for the fish...
They never have any complaints about diseases though -oh wait their product is meat, not veggies...

I've been wondering the same question and after I asked this forum, they said it should be done with caution, as the e.coli may find its way onto the plant's system...

Whilst Rabbits eat their own poop and then re poop it and my chickens on occasions eat poop wood shavings and love polystyrene, I have seen babies eat poop quit common. But the point is, is it just an error. As I have never seen a chicken's or Rabbits suspended over the natural worlds environment.

If you have the time to read you may like to read the following.
http://www.oscarfish.com/fish-food-ingredients.html.