Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey KP, apparently white flesh is a sign of calcium deficiency. In fact the fishing book I read said that they were only average eating when white fleshed. Are they all like that? Mine are certainly pinker than that.

hmmm I will check my pH and add some shells if necessary... regarding all fish... dunno maybe, I've only intentionally killed one.

Not calcium deficiency in the water, in the food. In the wild they eat yabbies etc which have high calcium. We decided that whilst they could get their calcium NEEDS through water and feed, the real trout aficionado's say that the flesh should be pink or it's tasteless.

hmmm ok.
I had thought that, this being the food fed by the hatchery, that it would contain all such needs...
Who makes calcium rich CHEAP trout food?

All commercial trout feeds have an addititve that enhances pigmentation... and should also be formulated with sufficient calcium content...

Rainbow trout get their colour from a substance called astaxanthin. Yabbies and scud contain high levels of it. A trout with a diet containing lots of yabbies will have a more pink/orange flesh colour.

Maybe astaxanthin, or a synthetic version, is added to the commercial feed?

I REALLY don't care about the colour. The issue I was responding to was one of taste. Does pink flesh indicate nicer taste?

The 1.5 Kg trout I took out earlier this year had no colour, but was the nicest trout I have had from the system.

I would guess that the fish that eat lots of yabbies and such would have really good flavor and, coincidentally, good flavor. Probably one could gain good flavor and have white flesh or pink flesh and poor flavor, depending on feed. It is tempting to feed fish on something really tasty for the last week or two before harvesting, perhaps in a pre-harvest tank, but what would do it at reasonable cost?

IMHO, wild animals that eat natural food taste heaps better than farmed animals... most ppl rave able the flavour of free range chooks, so I think you're probably right, but will feeding different food in the last couple of weeks do anything? or must we feed like that all the way?
I wonder if I could breed enough guppies or anything similar to feed a 20% fish, breed enough worms for 20% and enough fly larvae for a further 20% then use pellets to fill the gaps...
Still I think it's a heap of work. I believe the trout I had to be equivalent to those purchased from a trout farm, and accept that wild trout will taste better.
Unless there's something cheap and easy to do to increase the flavour, I'm just too lazy.

worm farm to supplement the pellets?

I suspect good quality fish food like the trout farms use is probably as good as we will get, in the wild exercise as well as diet is probably important in quality of fish. The problem with all the things we might try ourselves is it's hit and miss. Our "happy chooks" which free range a fair bit certainly have great eggs, but we always make sure they have access to food other than what they can get in the yard. And the yard is natural environment bit hard to do with the fish.

I'm passing on knowledge from a trout nut at my work. He says all farmed trout is tasteless and that the wild stuff tastes the best - dunno whether that's all in his head or not, but the flesh on his fish is way way pinker than any I've seen on these forums.

On the other hand, a mate of mine... an avid fly fisherman... rated the ones I gave him.. as good as any he'd caught...

My two cents worth from my own trout fishing and eating experience I would say there is a direct correlation between trout flesh colour and taste.

Trout caught in streams/rivers generally have paler flesh, I put it down to their diet mainly being insects. The taste is mild and the flesh less oily. Due the the lower oil content they seem to not smoke so well and are better fried. My AP trout were similar to stream caught trout.

Trout caught in lakes with mainly a fish diet (smelt, gudgeons etc) have more colour and a higher oil content. They taste OK and smoke reasonably well but still are better fried or poached.

Trout caught in lakes with lots of scud, yabbies etc have deep orange flesh and a lot more flavour. Higher oil content means they come out of a smoker tasting great.

Some might dissagree but for mine the best eating trout are brown trout, particularly those caught in the central tableland lakes (Arthurs Lake) in Tasmania. Deep orange flesh and very oily.