Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am very new to aquaponics and am looking at building my own system soon. I would really love to hear from anyone who has been successful with using edible fish (not goldfish) in their systems and all the hoops, red tape and money you had to pay in order for it to become a reality.

I have heard there is a possibility of gaining special permits etc through some of our government agencies for Grass and Sliver Carp and maybe even other species out there... anyone?

Hi
I am starting to use Grey mullet as they can live in salt or fresh water.
The trial is in its early stage but will post the results.
I own a business that has a licence to grow silver and grass carp but as has been stated these fish are on the restricted list but grow very well in a home aquaculture unit.
We are looking at breeding the Grey Mullet for home growers if the trial works out.

Thanks for your reply I will be very interested to hear how you get on with the Grey Mullet best of luck with that.

Do you sell Grass and Sliver Carp fingerlings? If so is it straight forward with getting a permit for them and what are the rough costs and red tape involved?

The cost is between $2000 and $4000 depending on the concent process.
It took me a year to get and cost was a bit higher then.
There is no way you will be able to use these fish species unless you get a permit or a fish farm licence.
Will keep you posted on our progress.
We are also trialling another species that should be even better than mullet but must stay tight lipped about that.

How did you get on with this?
Any viable edible species in NZ yet?


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I can only guess there hasn't been much success on this since none of the original posters have been back since 2015. I book marked this topic back then to see what came up and was hopeful when I saw a new post. I get the feeling Grey Mullet is still the best option here and no I haven't tried them, I'm still in the research phase .

I've started building, and am pretty keen to lobby for doc to waive application fee for home aquaponics users for permission to stock grass carp. Currently the fee to ask permission to stock is the same as the application fee to request to relocate carp (Which home aquaponics doesn't need) which seems to me to be counter to the principles of the legislation in regards to home aqua users.
Let me know if you would be keen to get involved.


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Interested in learning more about it. Did a quick search and found $2K + GST is the application fee with DOC, which is more than any home aquaponics user is going to want to pay, specially when there will be the price of the fish on top of that.

From what I've just read they only allow release of fish over 250mm so they won't be cheap either. The couple of places (if there is more than one) that breed them probably need a licence to breed and sell them. I'm guessing DOC would put home aquaponics in with this group and require home aquaponics user to be licensed (all speculation on my part).

Probably worth contacting "Aquatic Weed Management" http://www.aquaticweedmanagement.nz/ they supply Grass Carp and Silver Carp as well as starting to work with supplying Grey Mullet. The would have had to work with DOC and MPI to setup their facility and probably able to advise the best way to go about approaching this for home aquaponics users.