Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Obviously you have your reasons for wanting to raise subtropical species , but to me Canada screams Trout or such . Grow much quicker than Barra .

At least with the Tilapia you can fairly easily breed your own fish, and they will eat an assortment of plant materials as well. They are very forgiving of their environment too. With the Barramundi, you would have to get the fish imported each time. If you are not an accredited quarantine facility I believe you would have to pay some place to quarantine them for some period of time every time you import them as well, unless you are going to setup a hatchery facility and learn how. All in all, not great logistically or cost effective. You could always grow the Tilapia and suppliment with Omega 3.

Don't rule out the trout either. They grow very quickly in RAS systems (quicker than barramundi), can be sourced for very cheap locally, and there is a huge amount of experience and assistance available for you locally as it pertains to the various salmonid species.

try Ausyfish http://www.ausyfish.com/barramundi.htm they do barra, and send fish overseas, so they would have more information on this than anyone.
good luck

Hi.
Believe me when i know it will take 1 to2 years to grow Rainbow trout to 500gr, With Barra i can do it in less than 1 year, also trout will stop feeding when water temperature approaching 20 C, and that make it difficult to grow veggies when i have to cool down the fish tank h2o inside the green house for grow beds.
That is my believe but i can be wronged.
I thank you for your candid.
Cheers.

vdt

My personal conversion rates seem to be around 1.2:1 on average for trout (automated feeding 4 times a day, and manual supplemental feeds 2-4 times a day). It would have been even better, but it took about a month to get the automatic feeder portions right for the fish (the portions were originally too much for a single feed, hence having some wasted food). I have been getting trout growing from a starting weight of 100gms to 350gms average in 3 months (some fish much less, and some much more). Weight gain from that size is even quicker.

I think you should read this
http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Fisheries/Conten ... e_1107.pdf
No problem to grow charr or trout to plate zize in 6-8 months in BC.
Iff you still want barramundi, after reading their biological requirements to thrive and grow, there is farms in the USA
cheers

Using modern high quality, high protein food, feed conversion rates can be close to 1:1 under ideal conditions with fast growing strains. A large number of trout farms with ok conditions and normal strains commonly achieve 1.5:1. Salmon farms are consistently closer to 1:1 growing Atlantic Salmon, with some more recent specialized strains eating huge amounts daily to have incredible growth (like about double). These ratios were not always the case before higher quality food was available, and some older studies still reflect the poorer ratios, as do some more recent studies in countries where they were trying to use sub-standard food.

My personal conversion rates seem to be around 1.2:1 on average for trout (automated feeding 4 times a day, and manual supplemental feeds 2-4 times a day). It would have been even better, but it took about a month to get the automatic feeder portions right for the fish (the portions were originally too much for a single feed, hence having some wasted food). I have been getting trout growing from a starting weight of 100gms to 350gms average in 3 months (some fish much less, and some much more). Weight gain from that size is even quicker.
Hi Furnaceboy.
Thank you i will take your advice into consideration before i put the very first fish in the tank.
here at local market trout supply has saturated the stores, there are plenty of trout from the wild and from the farm, it would not a good situation for me to try to go and compete against the current.
With Barra, it will be easier to sell while i learn the grow out system.
Here in Canada i have not seen or heard of any successful commercial aquaponic operation, most of the fish farm are out door type and cause environmental damages. there are some Tilapia farm that are done in door, still can not compete against the frozen import from Asia. So why become one of many! while i can be different?
I am still tending forwards to Barra and i believe this fish can and will compete head on with Salmon or Trout in this BC market, also i can grow the veggies that fit into local Asian market better( We have a very high Asian population in Vancouver BC).
Cheers and love to hear more from you.

vdt


I would have thought that it would be prohibitively expensive to heat to the levels required to keep barramundi or tilapia happy for the 8 months a year that would be required there, unlike trout, which could be kept easily within a temperature range that would be fine for the trout and the plants (unless of course you were committed to growing hot climate plants). Some strains of brown trout can handle a bit warmer temperature than rainbow trout, which might help. If your focus is on the plants (and I daresay it should be with aquaponics, as you won't have the stocking densities of high intensity RAS), maybe you could consider something else that is locally available, like yellow perch, which can handle warmer temperatures, and breeds pretty easily too. I am not aware of them being used around there in aquaculture however.

There are a lot of people in your area in BC with great knowledge of the capabilities of the various salmonid species that you could draw upon (not to mention local hatcheries) to help with your decision. Gofishbc has some good people that could assist you (for some, that might even be their job ), and they have even developed some interesting triploid strains which may be of interest, although they don't know how they would do in a RAS type system, I am sure they would be keen to find out. I imagine that you have been (or soon will be) dealing with the BC Ministry of Environment (even if you just want to stock trout), and they too have some helpful resources, although it may not seem like it if you are wanting to host exotic fish.

At any rate, don't let your decision be based on thinking that barramundi will grow any better than the trout. Also,the cost and hassle of importing exotic species (permits, quarantine, higher mortality due to extensive travel, etc) should be a big deterrent. It would be for me. With the tilapia, if you were to breed them, at least it would be a once off for the import and quarantine I suppose.

Keep us apprised of your journey with this, as it should all prove interesting.

Hi Prawnz.
Yes, and you have a better fish in Barra and Jade perch.
Cheers.

vdt
No worries, things must be totally opposite there because its the northern hemishere eh .