Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello My name Is Kevin , I just recently came across this forum Online . You guys seem to really be on top of your game , concerning small scale aquaculture and aquaponics. I have been an avid organic gardener for years ,and by trade have been a commercial fisherman for the last 25 years. I really am interested in aquaponics in general, but am really interested in learning how to raise crawfish and freshwater prawns in small closed or open systems. Most of the info available in the states pertains to very large scale farming operations.

you should have fun browsing the forum and doing google searches. Welcome!

welcome to the madness... LOL..... have fun and ask any questions you may have...

jT

Welcome! I live not so far away, over NW of Orlando.

I believe we have some members in Hawaii that are running on a commercial scale but they are raising the tiger prawns in the DWC floating raft beds under the plants. You would need a way to keep the water warm enough in winter though for the prawns and the Malaysian tiger prawns need 60 F plus water I think. They need quite a lot of space though.

I suspect that you would need to get an aquaculture license to raise the prawns here in Florida but I know another member here in FL who has gotten the license and I guess it isn't so terribly hard.

Anyway, there is lots of reading here on the forum and there seem to be more and more Florida BYAPers coming on board so we might manage some bigger BYAP meets soon!!!!

Welcome again, and I'm sorry, there in no cure for the Aquapoics addiction but at least you have found the right place for support.

Welcome Kevin... yeah, scalability is an issue.... but if you're looking at personal consumption, aquaponics is definitely an amazing way to produce your own food...

Thanks for the welcome. I guess I should have expressed my intentions a little better in my first post. I'm not looking to start a commercial venture with this. It's more of a sustainable living thing (definitely personal consumption). That ,and I can eat my weight in mudbugs or shrimp.

Howdy Kevin, Iam new here too. I have a article in front of me about some folks raising freshwater prawns in Gila Bend Arizona also in Leland Mississippi. It looks from the photos they are using above ground swimming pools to raise them.

Hey Doug how you doing , Yeah I keep seeing articles of folks in Texas and Kentucky doing the same kind of thing. I hope this forum sheds a little light on the how toos of all this. This seems to be the most informative site Iv'e been able to find yet. If you don't mind saying where did you come across this article.

Kevin, the article is from a John Deere Magizene called "The Furrow" I dug it out of the trash at one of the places I Clean. It does'nt have a date on it. The owner of the place is Steve and Delores Fratesi in Leland Mississippi The guy in Gila Bend Arizona is Gary Wood he produces over 300,000 pounds per year from deep water aquifer water he pumps to the surface. If I can figure it out I could scan the article to you via email

Thanks for the reply Doug , but it sounds like these operations are a hell of a lot bigger than anything I have in mind. The above ground pool thing sounds pretty dooable though. Thanks.

I know that many of our aussie friends manage to raise yabbies in their systems though the primary info about AP systems is mostly geared to fin fish on the site.

I would be interested in info on other critters that would be easy/appropriate to raise here in the SE USA. I currently have Channel Catfish and Tilapia in my systems but might be interested in Crawfish if I can find a supply of an appropriate variety. Of course I then have to figure out how to escape proof part of the system for them.

I can say a backyard system is completely capable of feeding a person fish on a regular basis once it gets stabilized. I'm still working on getting the right balance of plants but my big system is not a year old yet so I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

Hey thanks for the welcome TC, I think a reasonable source for crawfish for us here in fla. would be any of the farms and markets in louisianna that sell crawfish for consumption. They are sold like maine lobster or fla blue crabs '" LIVE" . Also you might want to consider butter cats they are smaller and much more tasty. Our lakes here in tampa are infested with them. Hook an line them at night (trot line) I use beef liver for bait.

I've never heard of a butter cat before. I suppose I might think of it if I ever find myself going fishing though. I have a really easy source for channel catfish fingerlings. The small ones 3-5" are only 30 cents each and the next size up are probably only 60 cents each.

Now if you were to tell me you have been breeding the butter cats and have some to sell, I could be interested but I'm not sure I want to fish for the catfish to transfer into my AP system.

As to the crawfish, I plan to be following your system thread I expect you will be starting over in Member Systems to see what you come up with for growing such creatures. No need to wait on starting a system thread. It is a good place to show off your location and list your wants, needs, restrictions, materials, requirements and such to gain as much assistance from other members as possible before you actually spend much money on the project. That way you can probably get the most system for your money and effort. Pictures are greatly appreciated by all.

A butter cat is a local variety of fla. bullhead catfish . as far as eating goes they put a channel cat to shame. If you're interested look me up this summer , thats when we catch hundreds of them. Also I wouldn't use any wild caught fish in a closed system without a reasonable quarantine period. But that is pretty easily done with an isolation tank.

P. alleni is a native Florida crawfish, P. clarkii are a similar variety, but are the common red swamp crawfish. They handle larger densities and can live in a wide variety of water. P. alleni are more aggressive and prone to cannibalism.

The yabbie system of putting them in slotted tubes would work well in concert with tilapia I would think, but I have no experience. The fish and craws must be separated or the crawfish will suffer.

Kept properly crawfish can reproduce like crazy. Each female will reproduce between 100-500 babies at least 2 times a year.

I am currently keeping P. clarkii with my tilapia as an experiment.