Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Tilapia has remained our primary focus over the years, but we do carry other species from time to time (bluegill, catfish, hybrid striped bass, carp, bullhead, etc).

I have had Channel a Blue catfish before as dinner but never had Bullhead. I am impressed by the growth of the channel catfish I have and I'm not really giving it a great amount of food. He/she would make a good small sandwich right now.

A bullhead is essentially a small catfish variety. They are considered "trash" fish here but I've eaten them many times and they are very good when coming from fresh clean water, if you like oily fish.

I can easily obtain black and brown bullheads here and I'm thinking of starting my system with bullheads and yellow perch. Any problems with this idea?

Not that I can think of, sounds like a good idea Tinknal. Both should work well. Keep us posted.

I eventually plan to make a small 30-55gallon system for growing Kitchen herbs and was planning on useing Koi, Dragon Fish, Pictus cats and Tiger Plecos fo the same reason

New to AP but I can add a fisherman's prospective since much of my life has been devoted to their pursuit.

Bluegill hardy little omnivore, eats just about everything, despite common wild specimens they can grow to a respectable eating size, have caught them up to around 2lbs in well fed ponds. Not a true schooling fish but they do live in nice clusters around structure so they should do well at a reasonable stocking density. They don't live in the swamp muck but they do OK in small ponds leading me to think they are not hyper sensitive to perfect water quality. Taste great, when large enough to get some meat off them they are one of my favorites in fresh water.

Channel catfish, they do school heavy so I suspect they would thrive in tank culture even at high densities, not too picky about water as long as there is food, but don't live in the muck either. Taste is normally good but poor water quality can lead to an off flavor.

Carp (buffalo carp), I catch the blasted things in water that would kill a cockroach I doubt water quality would be on the top list of concerns, they eat pretty much anything they can get in their small mouth but vegetation and worms seem to be their favorites. I tried to eat them once but the bazaar looking meat was enough to change even my mind, some people love them though.

Largemouth bass, like bluegill not a true schooling fish the larger ones are downright anti-social, eats anything it can fit in it's huge mouth as long as it is alive, even dangerous snakes are not safe, I have heard you can train them to take commercial feed but it has to be the expensive kind with high protein content, otherwise I hope you have a bunch of goldfish laying around. Not sure how well they would do at high densities.

Red Ear much like bluegill except their favorite food is snails, and they don't grow as big, not my first choice for a farmed fish.

Crappie, like bass they love live food, never caught one on cut bait or corn, hope you have a minnow farm handy because these guys like to eat, BEST TASTING FISH EVER! Never catch them in standing water so I imagine having really good water quality is a must. They are a true schooling fish and should do well in tank culture, with only one concern, in the wild they live in deeper water then most fish mainly on deep submerged structure, not sure if they would thrive in a 3' deep tank.

Blue catfish, not normally caught in the same conditions as their channel cat cousins, they like deeper moving water which would lead me to think they require a higher water quality, they get BIG so you might not to raise them with any other fish. Larger ones hunt in packs.

Flathead catfish, DO NOT put anything else you want to keep in the tank with these guys, they eat EVERYTHING moving and with a mouth as wide as their body they are fully capable of that, they will even eat turtles! In my mind this is the best tasting catfish by far, unlike the others they are not a bottom feeder, like the bass and crappie they like live food only, 5-8lbs live carp are a favorite bait! They grow very fast for a catfish.

Gaspergoo (Bowfin) thrive in the worst river silt holes I have ever seen, you probably could not kill one if you turned your pump off for a week, but they are nasty critters with poisonous blood, nasty teeth and attitude to match. Don't let your cat near the fish tank, you might end up with fur clogging up your filter. Make sure to bleed them very well if you are brave enough to try and eat one.

Gar, despite their horrible appearance they are actually very good to eat, just very hard to clean with their super tough interlocking armor (use a Skill Saw or metal sheers), forget commercial feed they only eat meat, but it can be live, dead or frozen they don't care. Gar do not require good water quality they can breath air at the surface if there is not enough DO in the water, I see them in the swamp all the time coming up for a breath of air. Does not play well with others.

J.B. - can you PM me the name of your hatchery or any of you know that would ship green sunfish to texas? The species if native but it's considered a trash fish and I am unable to find the strain anywhere, only the hyrbid. The green sunfish are the fish that is cross with bluegill to make "hybrid bluegill" the hybrid offspring is ~80% male and grows faster and larger than either parent. The hybrid has a larger mouths like the green sunfish but the rounder looking body like the blue gill. I am interested in setting up breeders to spawn the hybrid but again, i have been unable to find the greenies.


kachok,

Overall a decent summary. I would add the hybrid striped bass "wiper" to your list. They are a cross of white "sand" bass and striped bass "striper". I havenot yet worked with them because i will be unable to reproduce them. The sperm and egg are harvested and met by artificial means in hatcheries. The species do not mix in nature. But on the other had, it's one of the highest quality fish meats in north america. A very good growth rate. Based on everything I have read and biologists i have talked to the fish should work well in backyard aquaponics as long as you keep good water quality and good DO. I will probably try them just to see how well they do, if not this season, next year.


personally, I have success with bluegill and channel catfish. I leave them outdoors year round in a 300 gallon ibc tank. The top of the tank sometimes freezes. I just turn off my pump until it thaws. I havent lost any to cold.

In texas you can buy LMB and hybrid striped bass already feed trained.. in fact it's becoming rare to find them not already feed trained.

I subscribe to pond boss magazine and i read the associated forum. They have a different objective but the biology information is very pertinent for raising regional fish in aquaponics. All of my feed training information has come from there.

The red ear sunfish do not readily take to commercial fish food. I have killed more than i care to admit trying to feed train them. They often get weak and die of a fungus infection. Originally i was buying the largest/oldest red ear and trying to feed train. This time i went with the smallest, youngest and feel like i am having more success. I have 6x ~1" long red ears in a 55 gallon aquarium. I feed them frozen blood worm and beef heart that i buy at the pet store. I thaw the frozen cubes in a petri dish with some water and a few commercial cichlid pellets (small diameter commerical food mixed sink/float with 45% protein) to try to mix the smell and soften the pellets. One RES has already started eating the ciclid pellets and after two weeks he is almost twice the size of the others. From my understanding some will continue to learn to take pellets by watching him. Some will never learn and i will have to cull or remove them. They also say that if i am able to reproduce the red ears that each successive generation is easier to feed train (i guess that is what has happened to LMB in this area since you used to could never find them feed trained)

I am also assured that crappie are feed trainable with roughly the same difficulty as the red ear sunfish. Once i figure out the best way to feed train the red ear I will try to do a larger batch than 6. I will also start working with crappie. I am sure i will start my own thread on feed training once i figure it all out and have more useful first hand information


brian

Darn sure did, forgot all about the hybrid, I used to catch them in rivers during the spring running with the real striped bass (when I lived in Texas). Nice fighters and good eating, they are food picky during the spring though, don't know what that is all about, during the short spring run the ONLY thing they will eat is a crawfish, the rest of the year I catch them on almost anything in the submerged weeds.
There are other species that I left out because I have zero experience with them seeing as they don't live anywhere near here like the brook trout, and other species that are so rare trying to find one might be a life long adventure like the spoonbill catfish.

We have a place in Yacolt, WA that sells Donaldson Rainbow Trout fingerlings 100 for $25. They're a nice older couple that have been doing this for many years. I picked up a half batch the end of April and they seem to be growing fairly quickly and will survive the winter in their tank if I decide to keep them that long.

Hello, I'm new to AP. Was wondering if anyone else raising trout makes use of chillers for summer weather, or have you been able to effectively cool the water in other ways? Our summer days can get hot (90 F), but the nights cool off quite nicely (55-60 F). I don't predict a drastic upswing in water temperature, but I'd like to be prepared just in case.

Also, is anyone out there raising steelheads? Rainbows seeem to be the fish of choice; just curious if anyone had success with other trout.

Thanks.

Hi Cambium.. You will probably find that the best fish for you, is the fish you can get easily from a local supplier.. You may find that your system could stay cool enough with some shading, especially if the temperature drops off at night. You may have to build it and monitor your temperatures to be sure though.

I have longear sunfish, red eyed rock bass, bluegills and warmouth sunfish in my system. All are native to my home state of Indiana and wild caught. We'll see how well they all do over time.

Just put bullhead in my new system. I heard they will eat anything but they seem pretty finicky so far. It's only been a few days so I'm hoping things will improve.

I've raised all of those and gave up on them except for gills. They were impossible to pellet train. This is for wild caught larger fish. If you can get them small in traps they will take to flake and then pellets. Same with crappie. Green sunfish will take to anything but beat the crap out of the others. I miss my longears....they have great color. Gills are all I raise now. They will eat worms from my hand in a week or so.




Floating or sinking pellets? They like to start of with sinking but can be trained to take floaters. If you bought floaters try soaking them so they will sink.

Around here the brown bullheads taste like crap. I have been ice fishing and seen 10 dead ones laying on the ice at every hole. The are aggressive during ice and no one wants them. The black are much better. I think it's the shad they feed on in some lakes. Private ponds and pits are much better tasting.

Floating. I tried soaking them. Some will get eaten but many get spit back out. They love composting worms.

As for taste, I've heard they're good if they're from clean cool water. Thus I plan harvest in a cold season.