Friday, June 22, 2012
TILAPIA DONE! :0(
We tried to sex the fish again to narrow down the group to one male and three females and in the process, something happened to the fish. Can't really tell what it was, but the 4 that were left over stopped eating and died. Don't know if they missed their friends or what, but the aquaponics experiment is over at less than an acre farm.
As the experiment wore on, it became obvious that it didn't fit in with the other animals raised here: chickens, rabbits and quail. Fish are super-sensitive and take a lot of specialized equipment. Oh well, it was still fun trying and I learned a good bit about the fish. I will be using that space in the basement to start a year-round hydroponic salad garden.
More on that as I get it going.
We tried to sex the fish again to narrow down the group to one male and three females and in the process, something happened to the fish. Can't really tell what it was, but the 4 that were left over stopped eating and died. Don't know if they missed their friends or what, but the aquaponics experiment is over at less than an acre farm.
As the experiment wore on, it became obvious that it didn't fit in with the other animals raised here: chickens, rabbits and quail. Fish are super-sensitive and take a lot of specialized equipment. Oh well, it was still fun trying and I learned a good bit about the fish. I will be using that space in the basement to start a year-round hydroponic salad garden.
More on that as I get it going.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Tilapia moved to breeder tank.
Kevin and I got the 8 breeders into the 90 gallon tank. They really look good in it and the increase in space from the 55 to the 90 was needed. Our fish were too big. I'll be getting another pump and setting up the aquaponic deep water culture beds shortly. Stay tuned!
The tank is sitting low to the ground so I can gravity drain the aquaponic tanks back into it. Year-round, bug-free salad greens are a great treat! Can't wait to show you the pics.
Blessings,
Wally
Kevin and I got the 8 breeders into the 90 gallon tank. They really look good in it and the increase in space from the 55 to the 90 was needed. Our fish were too big. I'll be getting another pump and setting up the aquaponic deep water culture beds shortly. Stay tuned!
The tank is sitting low to the ground so I can gravity drain the aquaponic tanks back into it. Year-round, bug-free salad greens are a great treat! Can't wait to show you the pics.
Blessings,
Wally
Friday, June 1, 2012
Raising Tilapia.
At the end of February this year, we received fifteen 2" White Nile Tilapia from White Brook Tilapia Farm to start our new aquaponics experiment. This fish were healthy and grew fast. At the the beginning of May, we sexed the fish and reduced the total to 8. We are hoping to end up with 2 males and 6 females out of this mix but we'll know the actual count soon enough.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr)
Judging by their activity, we are getting ready to have Tilapia babies and we are excited! As long as we get one breeding pair out of the 8 fish we will be fine as they lay eggs about every 6 weeks and start out laying 30-50 eggs at a time. In the wild, the survival rate is only about 1%, however, in captivity, it is more like 95%. We will have more fish than we can use very soon.
Our goal is to set up three 250 gallon tanks to grow out our fish and run part of the water through deep channel tanks with floating beds to raise whatever vegetables we can get during the season. In north Georgia that will be about 7 months out of the year. We have been told that these fish will reach 1+ pound in that time so we are hoping to eventually coordinate the grow-out period and the fish raising period to coincide so that we can let the grow-out operation die down to a minimal size during the colder winter months to avoid the extra costs of heating the three tanks.
Our breeding operation is maintained in my basement where the temperature is constant and the conditions can be easily monitored. We are also going to have a small aquaponic setup on the breeder tank to give us year-round salad mixes!
I will post some pictures of our fish operation soon. Feel free to write with any questions or suggestions at waltersingingr@gmail.com.
God bless,
Wally
At the end of February this year, we received fifteen 2" White Nile Tilapia from White Brook Tilapia Farm to start our new aquaponics experiment. This fish were healthy and grew fast. At the the beginning of May, we sexed the fish and reduced the total to 8. We are hoping to end up with 2 males and 6 females out of this mix but we'll know the actual count soon enough.
Judging by their activity, we are getting ready to have Tilapia babies and we are excited! As long as we get one breeding pair out of the 8 fish we will be fine as they lay eggs about every 6 weeks and start out laying 30-50 eggs at a time. In the wild, the survival rate is only about 1%, however, in captivity, it is more like 95%. We will have more fish than we can use very soon.
Our goal is to set up three 250 gallon tanks to grow out our fish and run part of the water through deep channel tanks with floating beds to raise whatever vegetables we can get during the season. In north Georgia that will be about 7 months out of the year. We have been told that these fish will reach 1+ pound in that time so we are hoping to eventually coordinate the grow-out period and the fish raising period to coincide so that we can let the grow-out operation die down to a minimal size during the colder winter months to avoid the extra costs of heating the three tanks.
Our breeding operation is maintained in my basement where the temperature is constant and the conditions can be easily monitored. We are also going to have a small aquaponic setup on the breeder tank to give us year-round salad mixes!
I will post some pictures of our fish operation soon. Feel free to write with any questions or suggestions at waltersingingr@gmail.com.
God bless,
Wally
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Sorry I haven't written in forever, but I've been ultra busy with too many things that are not as important as keeping you up-to-date on the Less than an Acre Farm. Since I last wrote I have:
Rabbits getting ready to breed. I have an American Chinchilla buck and an American Chinchilla doe as well as three New Zealand White does. All will be ready (theoretically) to breed in June. I'm excited to get the rabbit meat in the freezer for us and our friends and family.
This is the buck. Nice shape but has dual coloring on his back. If I were trying to sell breeding stock I'd have to let him go, but since this is a family meat operation, I won't be as picky!
Here's a view of one of my cages. The first rabbit is a N.Z. White doe. The middle rabbit is the American Chinchilla doe and the buck is at the far end.
Here's a shot of the other two N.Z. White does,
Just processed 33 broilers today. What a job. Fortunately, I had lots of help. My oldest son, Michael and 2 good friends of ours, Scott and Michael (I'll call him Father Michael to differentiate) pitched in to make the process really smooth. I still have 16 left to process next Saturday and I just hatched 23 more yesterday. I'll process those in 5 or 6 weeks. That should hold us for this year.
The garden is way behind - as usual. I put 70 tomato plants in, a small bed of cabbage, beets, string beans and herbs so far. I've still got to plant, as a minimum, more string beans, lima beans, summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I should be much further ahead, but I took on an additional project this winter and that is absorbing some of my "extra" time. :0)
The extra project is raising Tilapia. We bought 15 3 inch fish in February this year and after they got to be about 6-7" we sexed the fish (we hope) and kept 6 females and 2 males (we think). They are almost ready to breed and we are excited. We keep the breeder operation in our basement where the temperature is easier to control and we are building a grow out room behind our greenhouse which is attached to the garage. We intend to utilize aquaponics for the vegetables and the increased filtration that we'll get for the fish tanks. In addition, I'm starting two small aquaponic salad beds in the basement to get better filtration for our breeder tanks as well as giving us organic salad all year long! Great deal!!
That's it for now. Write me and let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to include some pictures soon.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Wally
Rabbits getting ready to breed. I have an American Chinchilla buck and an American Chinchilla doe as well as three New Zealand White does. All will be ready (theoretically) to breed in June. I'm excited to get the rabbit meat in the freezer for us and our friends and family.
This is the buck. Nice shape but has dual coloring on his back. If I were trying to sell breeding stock I'd have to let him go, but since this is a family meat operation, I won't be as picky!
Here's a view of one of my cages. The first rabbit is a N.Z. White doe. The middle rabbit is the American Chinchilla doe and the buck is at the far end.
Here's a shot of the other two N.Z. White does,
Just processed 33 broilers today. What a job. Fortunately, I had lots of help. My oldest son, Michael and 2 good friends of ours, Scott and Michael (I'll call him Father Michael to differentiate) pitched in to make the process really smooth. I still have 16 left to process next Saturday and I just hatched 23 more yesterday. I'll process those in 5 or 6 weeks. That should hold us for this year.
The garden is way behind - as usual. I put 70 tomato plants in, a small bed of cabbage, beets, string beans and herbs so far. I've still got to plant, as a minimum, more string beans, lima beans, summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I should be much further ahead, but I took on an additional project this winter and that is absorbing some of my "extra" time. :0)
The extra project is raising Tilapia. We bought 15 3 inch fish in February this year and after they got to be about 6-7" we sexed the fish (we hope) and kept 6 females and 2 males (we think). They are almost ready to breed and we are excited. We keep the breeder operation in our basement where the temperature is easier to control and we are building a grow out room behind our greenhouse which is attached to the garage. We intend to utilize aquaponics for the vegetables and the increased filtration that we'll get for the fish tanks. In addition, I'm starting two small aquaponic salad beds in the basement to get better filtration for our breeder tanks as well as giving us organic salad all year long! Great deal!!
That's it for now. Write me and let me know if you have any questions. I'll try to include some pictures soon.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Wally
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