Feel better now?

I currently have 1.2 million salmon under my care on a day to day basis. I work for the largest aquaculture company on earth and I must say the fringe benefits of pulling crab and prawn traps is nice, not to mention fishing for halibut.

Never thought of raising fish in "the yard". Interesting.

Does anyone know if I can I use a large metal stock watering tank as a fishpond for bluegills? I know they don't need deep or cool water. It would be shaded by a shadecloth roof or by trees.

What a great thread!
One of the most interesting and informative I've seen in a long time.

If I want to eat 2-3 fish a week, while the pond is unfrozen, how big should the pond be?

How deep should it be to ensure the fish survive the winter? I live in Canada and we can get extensive cold snaps (approaching 0 degrees F).

Other than eating them, is there any way to control over population?

Finally, how do you get them out to eat? I doubt it's with a fishing rod.

Depends on the fish. There's stocking rates (how many fish can live in a certain amount of water) and it's different for each fish.


I think that also depends on the fish, but my koi pond is 2 1/2'-3' deep and my fish do fine in the winter, with aeration. You have to keep a spot open for air to circulate or they suffocate. You can do this with a fountain, a waterfall, or a de-icer.


Predator fish.


You can use a rod, or a net if you like. If you train them to come to you by feeding them in the same spot each day, this is pretty easy.

That is a lot of work. No longer you post so infrequently. Where do you store all those numbers?

If its something like annual vegetables (like potatoes, acorn squash, zucchini etc) you can bet its going in the basement (maybe next year I'll have the chance to build something). I've been making mighty fine soups lately though from the vegetables we harvested. And french fries from the potatoes. But anything else you can bet I'll leave in its natural environment.

I live in Connecticut in the US (ok now its my prompt to go rrrr...) and our Jerusalem Artichokes are still growing beautifully. The stream is just chock full of baby fish (I think bass) swimming everywhere and they're just swimming around in whatever water is left (because of the drought unfortunately). And the supposed 'fish pond' that I dug with pride this spring and was so filled with water is just a bunch of mud now with no water. Because of the drought I totally lost my inspiration this summer to dig it out and instead focused on our veggie garden and potatoes.

As the world collapses (depending on the gas price) I think I'll get more inspiration to dig it out in the spring. Or just give up and plant cattails or day lily hoping for the best... I read that day lily really loves that marsh wetness, and also camassia quamash. I haven't had any experience with that yet it's just what I read. I just need to transplant them and see... The crayfish in my fishtank are doing really well and growing like crazy (even though the water isn't that great) so I'm getting more excited about the idea of digging out the fish pond and putting lots of (the smaller of course :>) of rocks in it and crayfish. I have a good feeling this might work out good. Just imagine having your own little miniature crayfish pond! Of course I would have other stuff growing in it besides...

After a quick review of this thread, I'm really tempted to have a small pond dug out.

The mortgage and vehicles are paid off, so why not?

we have an eight foot wide, thirty inch deep stock tank that holds 1000 gallons that the kids used for a swimming pool for years; when they outgrew it we filled it with water and some lilies, koi and goldfish. A fifteen hundred gallon an hour pump circulates the water through a homemade biofilter (lava rock). Its not PO friendly as the pump costs about four dollars a month but the fish are happy. During the summer I fed them koi food and during the winter its freezes over from time to time; we quit feeding them when the water temp hits about 50 degrees (fish don't have stomachs and the rotting food will kill them). Works for us.

Does someone grow fish in the backyard?
I mean a real normal sized backyard not a farmlet.
I yet read about aquaponics, but the system seems to me rather technical and expensive to set up, and I prefer soil grown vegetables.
How big must a pond/tank be? What do the fish need? You need a pump?
Our climate is frost free, subtropical.

I tried, but they didn't like the Miricle-gro....

I have raised a lot of fish both in ponds and in tanks. Very hard to do as you need filters etc. The concentration of fish in a small place makes for a lot of waste and so filters and aeration is needed. Very very intense type of project. Raising rabbits probably the best source of protein out there pound for pound. Feed to meat ratio very good.

Pond-raised catfish and crappie (pronounced Kroppie by everyone but the flatlander tourists) are very popular in Illinois mainly because we've turned the Mississippi into a river of toxins and raw sewage (thanks to the poverty of the Midwest and/or crazy grandfather clauses). I lived near the Mississippi for many years and NO ONE eats fish out of that river, not downstream of Chicago, anyway.

I've raised Koi (very similiar to Carp) and they grow pretty quickly. It does take filtration and a good spot and proper oxygenation and some other equipment and time. One year some egrets found my pond. That wasn't pretty. You need a pond depth of four feet or more to keep the critters away.

If you go on google and look up "pond raised catfish" you'll probably find quite a few hits. Shrimp farming was the other big deal in some parts of the midwest. They'd put the baby shrimp in big indoor above-ground swimming pools and raise them to chubby adulthood.

It seems more and more fish farms are having a hard time staying open.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/busin ... .html?_r=1

I don't like to eat farm raised poison fish anyway. But there is very little opportunity in my area for fishing spots that yield good size fish other than puny bluegills. And the store-bought stuff is sky high, unaffordable and usually stinks of ammonia for an added bonus.

How are you fixed for fish?

Plan on putting in a stocked pond or are you lucky enough to have a good fishing hole nearby?

My bug out spot is right on a fairly major river. I do worry about contamination post PO. Even the possibility of bodies floating down the river. (can you tell I'm a uberdoomer). I have stocked up on hooks, lines, sinkers, etc. I'm hoping it will be a decent food source.