Business Expansion

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skyhightree1

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Does anyone in here raise fish to sell " aquaculture "? Some of you know I am involved in the selling of animals directly to consumers. They come out and pick which animal they want and process it on site. I have a good base of customers and wondered about how hard it is to grow fish. I think someone coming out and getting farm raised fresh fish would be a good thing. Just wondering if anyone has any experience and or thoughts. There is no one around here selling farm raised fish directly.
 
There use to be a number of fish farms here. I have some friends who had them. The problem was what you do with the water that gets pumped out of the races. You need a good source of clean fresh water and a way to deal with the not so clean water. Allow the water to get dirty and the fish start to die. Locally they primarily raised trout. The one big outfit left raises Atlantic Salmon. I would assume that different species of fish will tolerate conditions differently.
 
Dave":30mnr0qs said:
There use to be a number of fish farms here. I have some friends who had them. The problem was what you do with the water that gets pumped out of the races. You need a good source of clean fresh water and a way to deal with the not so clean water. Allow the water to get dirty and the fish start to die. Locally they primarily raised trout. The one big outfit left raises Atlantic Salmon. I would assume that different species of fish will tolerate conditions differently.

I wanted to do brim catfish and trout... The only fish that could stand the dirty water would be catfish probably. The dirty water could be used in aquaponics growing and or spread over fields or something I guess.
 
Sky we sell some fish but to avoid red tape and special permits and inspection by tpwd.
We only sell as private pond stocking.
We buy fry to fingerling sized fish. Stock and feed them and sell them adult , ready to fish for fish.
Of course someone could eat them, but it wouldn't be very cost effective. We get paid for the size of the fish by people wanting large fish right now.
We have also looked at raising goldfish in small ponds and troughs. And wholesaling to baitshops. This requires a special permit and annual zebra mussel inspection on the ponds.

Check regulations carefully.
Your going to have to be quite a salesman to compete with what store bought fish cost. And make a dollar.

Private stash
 
it can be lucrative especially if close to town and offer to let people pay to fish and keep what they want, unfortunate its requires a hole in the ground that sucks up a lot of money and renders the parcel unfit for cattle
 
M-5":7x4x7bkw said:
it can be lucrative especially if close to town and offer to let people pay to fish and keep what they want, unfortunate its requires a hole in the ground that sucks up a lot of money and renders the parcel unfit for cattle

Your dead on bout the paylake. Very lucrative if you can stand the Yahoo's.

Your dead wrong about the ponds being wasted space
 
Thanks... Yea I guess I better check with the guvment on regs but im a licensed meat handler for the state so wonder if that's good enough. CMF What would you say your input cost is in the fish? I know you have to have electric and a climate controlled space if you have harsh temps on some fish.
 
callmefence":1rmco8in said:
M-5":1rmco8in said:
it can be lucrative especially if close to town and offer to let people pay to fish and keep what they want, unfortunate its requires a hole in the ground that sucks up a lot of money and renders the parcel unfit for cattle

Your dead on bout the paylake. Very lucrative if you can stand the Yahoo's.

Your dead wrong about the ponds being wasted space

Fish farms have rows of ponds on hundreds of acres of land these places are unfit for cattle because you cant sell your fish out of contaminated water , you also can not convince city folks that pay to fish the cows don't hurt anything. Ive toured several farms and had a UF test station here for them yrs ago and we would take the kids there to fish from time to time because my brother worked for UF.
 
skyhightree1":1zku0l4u said:
Thanks... Yea I guess I better check with the guvment on regs but im a licensed meat handler for the state so wonder if that's good enough. CMF What would you say your input cost is in the fish? I know you have to have electric and a climate controlled space if you have harsh temps on some fish.

We pay .10 cents for fry and .80 cents for fingerlings 4 to 6 ".
Fish food is about
40 cents a pound and I think you could expect reasonably to grow 1 pound of fish for 3 pounds of feed.
Trout idk. But catfish or bream should be fine in any weather you get.
The only climate control we do is areation during summer.And its really simple

Of course you can't put little fish in with big fish. We us 4x4 baskets made out of welded cattle panels and wrapped with window screen to raise fry to fingerling size. Then they go to a small pond until about 14".

Don't let me mislead you. I don't have a fish farm. I've got some ponds and enjoy messing with em. When it looks like we are getting to many big fish. I'll hang a sign at the feed store and sell some live fish.

I'll post pics of my aerator and brood baskets. Wta
 
I have a friend with an extensive aquaponics system. He's running catfish and tilapia. Lots of garden veggies on the liquid floats.

I haven't noticed him getting wealthy from his endeavor.
 
callmefence":2ldxxeww said:
skyhightree1":2ldxxeww said:
Thanks... Yea I guess I better check with the guvment on regs but im a licensed meat handler for the state so wonder if that's good enough. CMF What would you say your input cost is in the fish? I know you have to have electric and a climate controlled space if you have harsh temps on some fish.

We pay .10 cents for fry and .80 cents for fingerlings 4 to 6 ".
Fish food is about
40 cents a pound and I think you could expect reasonably to grow 1 pound of fish for 3 pounds of feed.
Trout idk. But catfish or bream should be fine in any weather you get.
The only climate control we do is areation during summer.And its really simple

Of course you can't put little fish in with big fish. We us 4x4 baskets made out of welded cattle panels and wrapped with window screen to raise fry to fingerling size. Then they go to a small pond until about 14".

Don't let me mislead you. I don't have a fish farm. I've got some ponds and enjoy messing with em. When it looks like we are getting to many big fish. I'll hang a sign at the feed store and sell some live fish.

I'll post pics of my aerator and brood baskets. Wta

Thanks I appreciate all your info.

backhoeboogie":2ldxxeww said:
I have a friend with an extensive aquaponics system. He's running catfish and tilapia. Lots of garden veggies on the liquid floats.

I haven't noticed him getting wealthy from his endeavor.

That's not my goal of getting rich from fish but offering more things to bring customers in like walmart :lol2:
 
You would be surprised at cheap prices of foreign fish fillets. That will be your competition. You'll have to really market your product. Also,There will be a lot of hoops to jump through especially if you are processing the fish.
 
zirlottkim":3ettmw67 said:
You would be surprised at cheap prices of foreign fish fillets. That will be your competition. You'll have to really market your product. Also,There will be a lot of hoops to jump through especially if you are processing the fish.

Yea wouldn't be processed by me just buy fish and they process same as they do now for the turkeys chickens sheep goats and pigs ducks and geese. The folks im dealing with on a weekly or very frequent basis now pay top dollar and don't bark at the prices I put on things because they can see how they are treated and what im feeding etc which Is really important to them.
 
Try it on a small scale and find out. Probably as much positive feedback on fish here as sheep and goats lol. Nothing wrong with a little diversity
 
RanchMan90":zjkdted3 said:
Try it on a small scale and find out. Probably as much positive feedback on fish here as sheep and goats lol. Nothing wrong with a little diversity

:lol: yea I am planning to try it on small scale first. Yea not many like goats and sheep :lol: I just wish I diversified 10 years ago
 
I don't know much of the details of it but fish in conjunction with a hydroponic garden interests me. The garden removes the waste from the fish tank and grows fast turnover vegetables and the fish show phenominal growth. Seems like an efficient system to me. It can be done on a backyard scale or bigger commercial. I was reading last week of a fellow doing it to supply his restaurant with fresh organic vegetables and Barramundi fish. The customers go ape over that sort of thing where they can follow the production of what they are eating.

Ken
 
wbvs58":2b37glkq said:
The customers go ape over that sort of thing where they can follow the production of what they are eating.
Ken

That is my strong sale point to the people around here they can see how their animal lives and allow them to select which they want etc.. They can see what they are fed and the facilities.
 

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