Anyone else raising fish for food??? Now with pictures of the Harvest!

[Magnum Man]

Veggies are starting to take off… they suffered before the fish, and when the fish were so small, there was no bio load… I picked 5-6 bananas peppers, got a green bell pepper that is about ready, it’s bigger than a baseball right now, and there are several cucumbers that are at 8” right now… with the 100 degree heat index, I added an air stone and pump that I had on hand to the middle tank… they were starting to breathe at the surface… the top tank gets full oxygenated water from the filter pumped in, but the middle tank gets over flow water from the top tank, and there is not a lot of oxygenation going there… I have a bigger air pump coming, that will drive a couple extra 10” air stones I have on hand for each tank… that will make sure everyone is getting what they need

The Fish are still growing like crazy, but now they are getting heavier, so they are not doubling in length every week anymore… they may be still doubling in weight though

 

[Magnum Man]

A couple fish

 

[gwand]

Fish are still growing like crazy, but now they are getting heavier, so they are not doubling in length every week anymore… they may be still doubling in weight though

Fantastic project. What weight are you shooting for prior to sacrificing?

 

[Magnum Man]

Really going to grow them as large as they will get with the weather…probably October is, when it will start getting cold enough, that they will quit growing

 

[Magnum Man]

Got my super sucker working, to suck the solids off the bottom of the tanks… a 1 inch hose and 2” clear tube 4 feet long, I had to put 6 -5 gallon buckets on a pallet, and that took care of one tank, so there will be, from now on, a 30 gallon water change performed on each tank, every week… the poop water is greatly appreciated by some of my plants ( last year I put a hedge row of hazelnuts in ) and those plants are 1st to get this water, during the drought we are in right now…

That figures out to a 12% water change weekly… I can easily do more if needed, as the fish get bigger

 

[Magnum Man]

Cucumbers are going crazy…

Hopefully the Bichirs are doing equally well… I honestly haven’t seen them since they were added… I think the numbers of mosquito fish has been slowly going down… so hopefully they are eating them… as thick as the giant duckweed is in that tank, they are getting plenty of privacy ( the baffle system to keep the duckweed out of the filters is working well, so there are a couple spots they can come up and get a breath of air if they want ) I’ve been feeding the mosquito fish shrimp pellets through here… but was hoping the bichirs would start eating those, but mosquito fish must be better tasting

 

[Blackghostknifekid]

I have a 65 gallon empty to use as a breeding and fry raising tank, and will put it with a 45 gallon to move the breeding pair into, while raising the fry…. Plan on putting 3-4 potential Mates in the 65, then only keeping the mating pair, I’ll use a tank divider in the 45 to control the mating, to work out, to only when I’m ready, I’ll transfer them back to the 65

Got some cucumbers along with some other veggies in a tank with the duck weed… no tilapia in this tank… my density charts say I can do as many as 75 per tank… right now there are 2 tanks with 50 tilapia each, beside this filtering tank

As you can see, all the tanks have heaters, if nothing else, to monitor the temperature

what is the curcurbitidea on the container.

 

[Magnum Man]

curcurbitidea???

 

[Essjay]

I think it's meant to be Cucurbitacea, referring to the plant with yellow flowers in the first photo.

Cucurbitaceae | Definition, Characteristics, Examples, & Facts

Cucurbitaceae, the gourd family of flowering plants, belonging to the order Cucurbitales and containing 98 genera and about 975 species of food and ornamental plants. Notable members of the family include cucumbers, gourds, melons, squashes, and pumpkins.

www.britannica.com

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[Magnum Man]

0h… those are cucumbers

 

[Magnum Man]

Harvested 2 cucumbers & a bell pepper this weekend... Tomatoes are shooting right now... the plant was kind of stunted before the fish, & came with pretty big ( between a golf ball & Baseball size ) tomato, on it, when I bought it... that has since been harvested, & now the tomato plants are filling with fruiting sites... The fish are still doing well getting braver at feeding, they know when I open the cover the pellets are coming... could almost train them to take food from my hands ( if I had more time ) they are a solid 4" right now... at 5" I'll be adding the 2nd down tube on the water flow out of the tanks... they currently have one sucking from the bottom, & one sucking from the surface... once I put both the down tubes on, when the fish reach 5 inches, I'll be able to add the giant duckweed from the 1st tank, without it getting filtered out... I'm hoping they'll start eating that as well, between pellet feedings

 

[Magnum Man]

Assorted diameter pipe cleaners are coming this week... funny how fast my 1" horizontal connecting tubes fill with debris from outside, & algae growth... this effects the water levels in the tanks by about 1/3 of an inch, when they are partially clogged, over freshly cleaned... they are only 8 - 10 inches long, but stuff settles in there

 

[Magnum Man]

on air pumps in my aquaculture set up... I've since added air stone to all the tanks... the fish were not gulping air at the top, they were swimming and breathing normally... but as an experiment, I added an air stone to one tank... this made the fish much more aggressive eating their pellets... after adding an air stone to the 2nd tank the increased vigor at meal time was also noticed... so I would suspect there will be a growth rate increase, by adding air stones... I'm assuming there is a raised oxygen level... but not sure if that's everything... maybe bubbles on the surface are stimulating them to eat more??? assuming there is increased circulation, not between tanks, but between the bottom & surface of the tanks... as I said, the fish were not gasping for air before I added the air stones, but perhaps they are just happier with an increased oxygen level???

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

As temperatures increase the solubility of oxygen in water decreases. This means it's quite likely you are correct that the fish were becoming oxygen starved in the warmer water, and adding the air helped circulate the water increasing the circulation and effective surface area for oxygen exchange. It's a nice and clean solution to the problem!

 

[Magnum Man]

The Tilapia are supposed to handle low oxygen water better than most... but anything I can do to make them grow faster

looking at a bigger, higher volume air pump... the pretty big aquarium pump I have on it now, is not vigorously bubbling the air stones in all 3 - 3 ft deep tanks... I'm thinking I want one in each back corner ( the water exchange pipes are in the front for ease of service ) so I want to drive 6 stones each at 3 foot depth