Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just wondering what the main species are people are growing in the US, in case I've missed one.. Catfish, bluegill, trout and tilapia seem to be the main ones, anyone growing other species to any extent?

Yellow perch should be on your list.

goldfish, koi, minnows, but not for eating, some may be trying to grow bass but I think those need too much space for a recirculating env?

I used largemouth bass and red eared perch to get my system started. They did fine, didn't loose a single one even though I never tested the water.

Crappie might also be on the list?

I know this was posted a long time ago, but as I live in France and we have largemouth bass over here, I wanted to know a bit more about it if possible.

Helomech, how many bass did you put together, how big were they and how long did they stay in your system and what was the fish tank size (volume and floor surface)?

Thanks a lot for the info!

Hybrid stipped bass was very popular in the past. A few grow Crawfish (I am still playing with redclaws). I will likely focus on yellow perch and minnows myself. Koi might be a good choice as well. A local major company does well with Barra.

Theres a few shrimp growers (Rosenbergii) around (Normally pond grown).

I am thinking it might be worthwhile (Never did the numbers though) to grow fish for the aquarium trade, Fancy Guppies and such.

I had to pull my tilapia out because the cold was killing them so I am stocked with bass again. They are doing great. Very easy to care for (I am raising minnows also) and are very hardy. I only have about 30 of them in 1500 gallons of water, so I could put a lot more. Not sure of the max I could put in there.

Timely post, as I need to figure out what to put in my new system this year. I like minnows because they breed and breed, it's great to get a fish that you only have to buy once. I'm seeing lots of koi (francois, Web4Deb, Ryan), but I looked at a pond stocking web site yesterday and they want like $9 for a 4" to 6" fish, would run out of money before the tank is full.

helomech, these are large mouth bass? I thought you could only have a few in a pond because they require so much room to prey on the other fish? They do OK in a recirculating system too? (That is very interesting)

Yes largemouth.

They tend to lay around most of the time, until you put minnows in, then they go nuts. It seems that no matter how many minnows I put in, they are all gone in less than a day. I have had these in the tank for the entire winter, with no deaths. Going to put more in, as soon as I get off my lazy but and go to my pond and catch more. I think I can get away with over a 100 easy in this tank. Now feeding a 100 might be a full time job.

Bass do well in RAS. Umass has a small demo system: http://extension.umass.edu/aquaculture/ ... nics-umass. At the time i visited, they had about 100 10 inchers in a single tank. His are all feed trained. I doubt you could do multiple species in one tank.

Density is all based on water quality and chemistry. If you're willing to add O2 and have high efficiency filters, no reason you can't max out density, of course with all the headaches and costs that go along with that.

The also was a local farm that had started a breeding program (included a chill room so they could get fingerlings year round) but they staopped that program within a year after starting. Adults were raised in a lined pond. the lined ponds were about 100 ' x 40 ' and maybe 5' deep, had maybe 100 or so large bass (~18"+?). Probably could have held more but the did not have anything mech. other than automated water level adjustment.

Cool, thanks for the info!

My local hatchery is having a special on pure strain Green Sunfish fingerlings. They grow to 12" and 1 lb-ish. Gonna give them a try this year in one of my tanks. Folks say they are good eating. Should be interesting to assess their fesibility as an AP species. Curious as to their grow out possibilities, feed conversion rates, etc.

J.B.

I think we might just see Bullheads become a somewhat popular AP fish in the US in the future. Lots of very positive aspects to them.

Kellen you doing any but tilapia or are you sticking with that