Wednesday, October 14, 2015

8 months! 1lb! That's it and now I can focus on everything else

So, I did it. 
From start to finish, those fish grew and were harvested.  At just over 7 months they were about 1lb each.
The first batch were not terribly tasty - i'm going to try just letting them soak in an overpowering marinade and see if that makes them better.
The second batch smelled good at least - haven't gotten around to eating any yet.  Likely because of the higher quality pellet food I was giving them.
Man, though.  They have hard heads!  It was a tough job knocking them out, and then beheading.
I've got a few pics, including their teeth.  Pretty interesting stuff.  At the size they were, they became fairly docile as they were the last in the bucket.  Probably as a result of oxygen starvation.

So, improvements for next year
 : definitely get hydroponics attached.  It is way too hard to keep them alive in clean water without something taking the nitrogen out.
 : better heating system.  Very dangerous, precarious setup that ultimately failed in the last week and cost me a 300 watt heater.
 : better food.  A good part of their flavour is the crazy vegetation they eat - nuts, etc.  So, get some home made food into them.
Warning - Gruesome pics follow.

 Got a little excited and missed one of the measures


From the demonstration of our friends Dayna and Chad, so I'll remember how to clean a fish in the future

Learning by doing

Not a bad size

Check out those teeth!!!


1 comment:

  1. I followed your post because I wanted to start a similar setup.
    Do you still run the system ? what has your experience been like in with the aquaponics setup?
    Where can I source the fish in Winnipeg ?
    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete