Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

to start this thread off... i have done no research into this question so i am posting it here to ask.

since fish mostly are herbivores and rabbit poo contains alot of undigested plant matter, not to mention prepelletized

do you think it would work. my one rabbit can sure pump out the black gold... heh and since im not gardening in the ground these days i dont want it to go to waste.

Tilapia would probably love rabbit poo. They are commonly used to clean up poo from other fish, too. There was an episode of "Dirty Jobs" where they showed harvesting the "cleaning crew" to be sold--I can't remember what fish they were cleaning up after. And I think I recall something about putting a cage of ducks over a tilapia pond.

My Koi & Goldfish eat it , need to make sure its really dried out and then I tend to crush them in half , as theres a 2:1 ratio rabbit "back end" to goldfish "front end"

as Ive only got 2 fish in each system , they dont tend to go wild & eat it all off the surface ( rabbit poo floats ) , but Im going to be feeding it to my trout as soon as I get them & I'll be surprised if they dont tear it to pieces as soon as it hits the water

what are you feeding the rabbit though - do you want whats in the rabbit food to be going into your system ? Im feeding mine veg scraps , fruit , leaves & junk from the garden and as much fresh straw as I can , so theres nothing really questionable going through the rabbits into the system

If you were feeding your rabbit solely on pellets ( which is a bad idea , as the calcium or something builds up in their bladder & they end up with thick gluggy chalky urine , which looks pretty painful when theyre sitting there trying to have a leak . Can be easily reversed / fixed by cutting right back on the pellet food and going for fresh greens / straw / more water . ) i'd be checking whats in the pellets , maybe something you dont want going through the system into your own food

oh - and for those people that dont know : Lettuce is NOT rabbit food , dont feed lettuce to rabbits , it can kill them

Edited by CL

no need to try to seperate my rabbit poop from the urine , they dump more than enough of it around the yard that it aint hard to find un-urinated-on rabbit poo .
just need to train the kid to go around scooping it all up for the fish . im thinking I might start drying it out on some sort of rack aswell

talapia are scum suckers anyway, they would love it. they are used to process the waste of other fish in commercial farms.
id' just be careful how much you dump in the water as you'll end up with an algea problem if there is any uneaten pellets.

Are tilapia bottom feeders? I know they do rise up to take floating pellets. Do they also clean food off of the bottom?

I ask because I just made some food from veggie scraps mixed with eggs, dried it and gave it to the fish. It sinks and I can't tell if they are eating it or not.

Heck, if the system had enough grow bed to handle the extra bio load, there may be no need to separate the urine.

Yep, it is just more of what the fish are putting out. Besides, the tilapia love algae. I've heard they clean it up really well, scraping it from surfaces and filtering it from the water.

Just remember that what they eat affects their flavor...if you don't like the flavor, change the feed...

I tested this ... and have posted on this topic a year or so ago.

No problem at all!

If your child has a pet rabbit ... use some of the poops as tilapia food! Free !

Tilapia love rabbit poops. In fact rabbits often eat their own poops too!.

(Read Watership down!)

In China and many SE asian Countries, chicken pens are often sudpended over ponds .. the tilapia nibble the poo directly and then find a place where the ammonia concentration is low for a while.

They also feed off the opportunistic algae that grows from the nutrients provided by the poo.

Rabbot poop is pretty low in ammonia ... so a few pellets thrown in the pond IMHO is a good idea.

The pans under my rabbit cages are full of wet poop, urine and wasted hay. Not a good feed for fish but great for the garden. However the poop from the goats is relatively dry but when raked up will be mixed with some dirt. It would be simple to screen off the dirt. The goats feed on alfalfa and surplus veggies with a small amount of grain. I eill try this out and report. Still cycling my first system so only have 55 wee gold fish at present.

Dry or freeze a little goat poop and a little rabbit poop and see how your fish thrive on using it as a treat!

Crush a coackroach or cricket .. moth or blowfliies ... or grow some maggots ...

Tilapia .. omnivores will go MMMmmmmm

johnnie - rabbits dont technically eat their own poop ( unles theyre fecophiles or something )
The poop that they eat are ommonly called "night stools", and are a highly concentrated ( and usually green ) vitamin packet . rabbits , unlike humans , produce their own vitamin C ( plus others , I assume ) , it gets concentrated in the gut ,pooped out , then eaten & digested in the first stomah

Makes me glad our bodies DONT produce their own vitamin , if thats the way nature would intend us to get around to eating them ..

So the old thing about rabbits eating carrots for the vitamin C , so they can see better at night ...
Its more that rabbits eat carrots cause theyre tasty and it annoys the person trying to grow said carrots

Rpondpa, Tilapia will eat from the bottom, mid-water or surface. I use mostly floating pellets, but also frozen corn or peas for special treats for the breeders. The veggies slowly sink. They'll also scrape algae off the walls for a light snack. If your homemade food sinks, you might try blending the veggies separately, and then mixing the veggie paste with whipped egg whites or other leavening to give it some air bubbles for flotation. Actually, yeast would give it good nutrition, too. It's worth a shot.

Boris, we do produce our own vitamins--D. Fortunately, that just come from a few minutes of sunshine rather than any more involved process!