Aquaculture for small farms

A pond on a small farm can mean much better all-round farm integration and greater overall production. Apart from their use for ducks and geese, ponds can raise a useful supply of fish.

(ICAAE)

Plant and animal wastes fertilise the pond and/or feed the fish, sludge from the pond fertilises the croplands to raise more plants and animal-feed.

Ponds are also useful for waterharvesting in dry areas, storing water as a resource for the farm while being used for fish-raising. And ponds are often a viable land-use for marginal land or poor land. Even a small pond in a backyard can be a worthwhile source of food.

Aquaculture resources

"Small Scale Aquaculture: A Guide to Backyard Fish Farming" by Steven D. Van Gorder, 1992, Rodale Institute, ISBN 0-9677732-0-2
Details and plans on how to raise, harvest, prepare, and store over 100lbs of fish in five months. This system is the result of eight years of research at the Rodale Research Center. A simple and efficient way to produce your own fish on a scale appropriate for a self-sustaining household. Makes home aquaculture as practical as gardening for providing healthy food for a family. Features an ecologically sound recirculating system designed for low energy and low water use made from readily available materials. From Rodale Institute Bookstore:
http://rodaleinstitute.org/bookstore/products/farm_books/3.html

"How to Grow Fish in the Mountains" by Joseph E. Richter, 1999, ECHO
Richter is a missionary-biologist working with FARMS in the Philippines. Written for the farmer. Simple and practical information, useful illustrations. "For every kilogram of fish in your pond you can add 80-160 grams of wet manure daily. If your manure is dry, add only 20-40 grams. Sunny days are best for manure application. The morning is the best time to manure, so the nutrients can be used during the sunny part of the day. Afternoon application can cause a loss of oxygen during the night which can kill the fish." Why grow fish, common cultured fish, pond construction, fingerlings and their production, sexing brood fish, predators, fertilizing and feeding, integrated fish farming, harvesting, common mistakes. From ECHO's Global Bookstore:
http://echonet.org/shopsite_sc/store/html/
HowToGrowFishInMountains.html

"Tilapia" by J.C.V. Arrignon, 1998
Guide to farming tilapia: tilapia breeding, farming systems, health and environment, construction of farms and farm management, integrated farms. Clear, easy-to-read style, many photographs and diagrams. From ECHO's Global Bookstore:
http://echonet.org/shopsite_sc/store/
html/Tilapia.html

From "An Introduction to Aquaculture"

Water Harvesting and Aquaculture for Rural Development Series from the International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments (ICAAE), Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, Auburn University, Alabama. The ICAAE has worked on development in 97 countries. This is a useful series of 20 online booklets, clear and well-illustrated. Aquaculture, ponds, fertilization, feeding, tilapia, polyculture, rice paddies, intensive cage culture, water harvesting, more.
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/faa/icaaepub.html
ICAAE home page:
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/faa/icaae1.html

AquaNIC Aquaculture Network Information Center is intended to be a gateway to electronic resources in aquaculture. Maintained at Purdue University and supported by the US Department of Agriculture Extension Service. Searchable database, plus centralized search of a variety of other databases. Useful resources for beginners and discussion groups, categorized by Species and by Systems.
http://aquanic.org/

Roofwater Fish Farm Ideal For Learning -- Australian Vivienne Hallman is proving that urban fringe farmers can grow native fish successfully on natural foods. Most of the water can come from a home rooftop. Much of the fish food can be home-grown earthworms and insect larvae. Vivienne's project has shown how Australian native fish could be reared in a small area on worm-farmed kitchen scraps -- to give benefits to a vegetable or fruit tree garden. "One crop a year of silver perch is possible with unheated water," she said. Up to 50 fish a year can be raised in a 4,000-litre [900 gallons], unheated tank, to 350 to 400 gram size [about 1-lb]. "This means each of my five tanks is capable of raising 17 to 20 kg [37-44 lb] of silver perch under the non-stressful growing conditions I favour," Vivienne said.
http://www.cityfarmer.org/fishfarm.html

Fishing for Information -- links to Internet resources on aquaculture, fisheries, fish farming, shrimp, water resources, etc, from the Institute of Aquaculture at Stirling University in Scotland.
http://www.stir.ac.uk/aqua/Fishing/Fishing.html

The FishBase Global Information System on Fishes was developed at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) in collaboration with the FAO. Web-based searchable information and pictures on over 20,000 fresh and saltwater fish. Common name, scientific name, location, biology, culture, references, more (25,530 species, 71,000 synonyms, 110,000 common names, 28,000 pictures, 21,000 references).
http://www.fishbase.org/

"Chinese Methods for Integrating Fish Culture with Crop and Livestock Farming" -- Integration of fish, livestock, and crop production in China has been refined over 2,000 years. The system recycles resources, reduces organic pollution (livestock and poultry manure are good organic fertilizers for fish farming), and combines fish farming with mulberry cultivation for raising silkworms. The silkworm pupae are used as fish feed, and the worm faeces and wastewater from silk processing as pond fertilizers. Pond silt is used as fertilizer for fodder crops, which can in turn be used to feed livestock, poultry, and fish.
http://archive.idrc.ca/nayudamma/fishcul_30e.html

"Rice-Fish Culture in China" edited by Kenneth T. MacKay, IDRC, 1995, 240 pp, ISBN 0-88936-776-0, $35
Raising fish in rice paddies brings to farmers in Asia an important source of protein, as well as extra income. Biological and ecological aspects of rice-fish culture, and the economic and social dimensions. Full text online:
http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?
&DID=6&Product_ID=484&CATID=15

"Duckweed -- a potential high-protein feed resource for domestic animals and fish", by R.A. Leng, J.H. Stambolie and R. Bell, Centre for Duckweed Research & Development University of New England Armidale, NSW Australia, Livestock Research for Rural Development, Volume 7, Number 1, October 1995 -- "... duckweeds yield 10-30 ton DM/ha/year (dry matter per hectare per year) containing up to 43% crude protein, 5% lipids and a highly digestible dry matter. Duckweeds have been fed to animals and fish to complement diets, largely to provide a protein of high biological value. Fish production can be stimulated by feeding duckweed to the extent that yields can be increased from a few hundred kilograms per hectare/year to 10 tonnes/ha/year."
http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd7/1/3.htm

The Integrated Tilapia & Duckweed Farming System -- The fish and the waters of the tilapia growout ponds provide the nutrients upon which the duckweed will thrive. In turn, the duckweed removes unwanted nutrients and waste products from the system, converting the nutrients into plant biomass. This plant biomass, in turn, becomes a high protein food for the tilapias. While all this is going on, water within the integrated system is conserved and purified. The entire system is a natural and sustainable approach to aquaculture.
http://www.fishfarming.com/recirc.html

Duckweed Aquaculture -- A New Aquatic Farming System for Developing Countries, Paul Skillicorn, William Spira & William Journey, (1993) The World Bank -- "The PRISM Group initiated a pilot project in Bangladesh to develop farming systems for duckweed and to test its value as a fish feed. The results of the pilot operations were extremely promising; production of duckweed-fed carp far exceeded expectations, and dried duckweed meal provided an excellent substitute for soy and fish meals in poultry feeds. Duckweed could be grown using wastewater for nutrients, or alternatively using commercial fertilizers. Duckweed-fed fish production does not depend on mechanical aeration and appears to be significantly more productive and easier to manage than traditional pond fish culture processes." Full text online:
http://www.prismusa.homestead.com/files/Duckweed.htm
Color photos by Gregory D. Rose
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/u/gdrose/image/prism.html

Massive Fish FAQ from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center -- plus a page of other fish FAQs. Do fish sleep? Do they chew their food? Everything about fish, as well as lobsters, shrimp, crabs, whales, turtles, porpoises, clams.
http://www.wh.whoi.edu/faq/index.html

"On-Farm Fish Culture", Agrodok No. 21, 1998, Agromisa Foundation
Crops or animal husbandry can easily be integrated with fish culture, with total production higher and more efficient than farms which haven't been integrated. Step by step strategy: principles of integrated fish culture and the use of plant material as fish feed and/or fertilizer, factors influencing the biological system in a fish pond, integration of fish culture with rice culture or several kinds of livestock production (pigs, poultry, ducks and geese, other livestock), many examples of possible combinations, by-products use, animal manure, using slurry from the pond as fertilizer for crops.
http://www.antenna.nl/~agromisa/agrodok/ad21.html

"Small-Scale Freshwater Fish Farming", Agrodok No. 15, 1996, Agromisa Foundation
Basic information for beginners. Principles of fish farming, site selection and choice of fish farm type. Detailed description of how to set up a small-scale fish farm for subsistence to provide daily protein requirements. Fish farming practises, choice of species, nutrition, health, reproduction, harvesting. Pond construction (appendix) and maintenance. Focus is on carp, tilapia, catfish.
http://www.antenna.nl/~agromisa/agrodok/ad15.html

"Raising catfish in a barrel" -- A biological food chain in the back yard produces fresh fish for the table and compost for the garden, by Philip and Joyce Mahan, from Organic Gardening and Farming November, 1973
http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods007.htm