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Mrs R



Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 4:21 pm    Post subject: Aquaculture Reply with quote
    

Thought I'd create a dedicated thread somewhere more appropriate

I want to have a go at this, was charmed by the idea a few years ago when i watched a documentary about a japanese village which was made up of houses on stilts over a shallow, clear river. Every house had a mesh 'pen' underneath it for the fish and all table scraps were thrown to the fish, and then when they were fat enough they were eaten. Seemed very efficient!

I think the two ponds we have here are unsuitable - one is too small and the other is too inaccessible for catching the crop I think! It also gets soiled and churned up by cattle/geese/ducks etc.

So I was thinking of starting from scratch by digging half the depth, and using that soil to build up the sides and then putting a proper lining in?

Does anybody know if the table scraps regs apply to fish? Carp seem to be vegetarian - something that'd eat meat would be handy for us, any species suggestions?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

This old thread might be worth a scan: https://forum.downsizer.net/about27602.html

There's no much in it but I wonder how far Truffle has got?

resistance is fertile



Joined: 24 Oct 2008
Posts: 1534
Location: The heart of North Devon
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We are building our little reed thatched chicken houses on stilts (vietnamese house design) in the middle of eaach pond with wire floors and running a whole series of ponds, like the old stewpond idea.

Filling a drained one with young chickens (who eat the shoots and pooh everywhere) then move them into 'next door' pond and flood their previous one so the fish eats well on what the poultry left, then on and on, from pond to pond.

I have a solar pump dedicated to the ponds for running water and filling/filtration etc and just like the idea of trout fry from a friend fattened up and smoked in our iminent smokehouse

Carrie, having done allsorts of african aquaculture stuff, thinks pond fish are far more efficient etc (just not as appetising!)

Dont think we can really run to trying to set up this system for multispecies (but maybe) as the ponds are not that deep.

All sounds like fun though

Mrs R



Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 5:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

resistance is fertile wrote:
We are building our little reed thatched chicken houses on stilts (vietnamese house design) in the middle of eaach pond with wire floors and running a whole series of ponds, like the old stewpond idea.

Filling a drained one with young chickens (who eat the shoots and pooh everywhere) then move them into 'next door' pond and flood their previous one so the fish eats well on what the poultry left, then on and on, from pond to pond.



I like that idea! Similar to what I've read but with cattle rather than fish, and then 'grazing' grass carp in the ponds...

How are you planning on draining the ponds though?

resistance is fertile



Joined: 24 Oct 2008
Posts: 1534
Location: The heart of North Devon
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

There is a seperate trench running beside them all with a drain in and out and a series of sluices so we can drain and fill any of them.

The pump comes into play when you refill the top one again and for aeration etc.

Mrs R



Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 09 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

ah i see yes - good idea!

SmattyB



Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 127
Location: Just landed in Aarhus, Denmark.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 7:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Ixy

Carp are omnivorous and even predatory at times, I have even caught commons on lures in the past (although not often) and you'll often hear them hoovering up the invertebrates from the underside of lilly pads in the summer.

River cottage 'Gone fishing' is being repeated at the mo and the next episode visits an organic carp farm, a British first apparently. Chan 4 I think it's on Tuesday nights.

M

Mrs R



Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I was going to say 'thanks but we don't have a telly and the dongle isn't up to internet TV' but I've just been informed that we have the DVD!!!!

resistance is fertile



Joined: 24 Oct 2008
Posts: 1534
Location: The heart of North Devon
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

SmattyB wrote:
River cottage 'Gone fishing' is being repeated at the mo and the next episode visits an organic carp farm, a British first apparently. Chan 4 I think it's on Tuesday nights.

M


Amongst the lively 'debate' that this thread reignited between ourselves last night I found myself making the point that we had seen 'the UK's first carp farmer' years ago on telly.

My point was that he is probably either still the UKs only carp farmer or the UKs only Ex-carp farmer as there has not been any discernible uptake from the fish eating public.

I still think its the sort of fish you would have to be fairly hungry to want to eat

Catfish anyone?

Mrs R



Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 8:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Yeah I'd go for catfish - what are they like?

BadgerFace



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 915
Location: Sussex
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I have an old fishing book, from the ‘The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes’ (1889). It has a very interesting chapter on carp and tench. It tells of how carp were reared in wet moss lined ‘hammocks’, hanging in cool cellars and spoon fed ‘like large babies’ on a diet of bread and milk ! Apparently they have the ability to survive out of water, as long as they are not allowed to dry out. They must have thought they were worth eating to go to that much trouble. The same book talks of rearing tench for the table, fed on meal - slimy tench & chips, anyone ?

Not much help to you Ixy, but interesting I thought

SmattyB



Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 127
Location: Just landed in Aarhus, Denmark.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

https://www.aquavisiononline.com/

Seem to be the people that HFW visited, but the pages don't seem to be too up to date, wonder how they are doing.

RIF smoked trout does take some beating and they come in many colours to tempt the punters. I've just started smoking fish in my Pizza oven and it works pretty well (small scale though).

resistance is fertile



Joined: 24 Oct 2008
Posts: 1534
Location: The heart of North Devon
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

SmattyB wrote:
https://www.aquavisiononline.com/

Seem to be the people that HFW visited, but the pages don't seem to be too up to date, wonder how they are doing.



I rest my case Mrs RIF

shadiya



Joined: 02 Feb 2008
Posts: 1285

PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 11:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Afraid not RIF, they are def still going. In fact Jimmie was one of the local food producers at the Soil Association Conference dinner last autumn and jolly nice his carp was too! I expect they just haven't had a chance to update their web site, what with there not being enough hours in the day and all....

We've just had a local fish farmer ban all Eastern Europeans from his fishing lakes, on the grounds that they are actually taking the fish home to eat!!!!

Bl**dy foreigners, don't they understand fishing is a sport, not a way of feeding yourself??

I'm really interested in your pond design, any chance we could have a few more details? Pictures?

Silas



Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 6848
Location: Staffordshire
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 09 11:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

shadiya wrote:
Afraid not RIF, they are def still going. In fact Jimmie was one of the local food producers at the Soil Association Conference dinner last autumn and jolly nice his carp was too! I expect they just haven't had a chance to update their web site, what with there not being enough hours in the day and all....

We've just had a local fish farmer ban all Eastern Europeans from his fishing lakes, on the grounds that they are actually taking the fish home to eat!!!!

Bl**dy foreigners, don't they understand fishing is a sport, not a way of feeding yourself??

I'm really interested in your pond design, any chance we could have a few more details? Pictures?


Oh good.

Racism manages to rear its ugly head even here.

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