Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've read the suggested stocking rates according to tank size and the amount of what you have but is it possible to calculate sotcking rates accoring to how much fish you intend eating?

We don't eat any meat or chicken but we do eat fish. If we wanted to eat a fish meal 3 days a week, how would we calculate that how many we need.

I read that the fish grow according to how much they're fed, but how long would the average time be between adding barramundi and perch finglerings and eating the fish.

Are there any trick to staggering the fish so that they don't all mature at the same time? What do members do when they have a lot of fish that are ready to eat? Do you freeze them or just leave them in the tank to grow bigger?

I apologise for all the questions but I'm very eager to learn from everyone's experience.

Check the download area for the calculator spreadsheet I created.

You can input either number of fish, tank size, grow bed volume, or grow bed area. It will then calculate the associated system. It's kinda kludgy but it works.

Note: the params are in min/max form. So if you want 10 fish you need AT LEAST a tank of calculated size, and AT LEAST a grow bed of calculated size. Conversely, if you know your tank size, the calculated number of fish will be your MAX.

thanks Tamo, I'd forgotten about your spreadsheet

And now my feelings are hurt

Oh Noooooo! Please, please forgive me!

Forest,
SP take 12 to 18 months to grow from fingerlings to plate size (500-700grams), but such is life, some grow faster than others so that even tho they all started at the same weight, they can be harvested over a period (eat the big ones 1st).

They don't all need to be harvested at the same time and so if the last ones are a bit larger (1kg) it is not going to be a problem.

Working on your 3 meals a week for 2 people that calculates to 300 fish/year or if you break this into 2 lots - get 150 at the beginning of the spawning season and 150 at the end (add extra for unexplained deaths )

I have used SP as an example (cos I have the figures for them), jade perch and barra grow quicker I believe and you can also mix and match (SP and jade co-habitate).

So to answer your question, depends on how lazy I am at the time I would harvest a weeks worth and freeze some or do a whole batch and freeze or get real energetic and have fresh fish (non frozen) each week.

Fresh fish each meal is good but would stress the fish a bit so compromise.

Tamo's spreadsheet can be of useful also.