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Rabbit Aquaponics?

 
pollinator
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Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
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Hey I had a wild thought...

I wonder how an aquaponic type of system might work, but instead of putting fish in a tank, you place rabbits over the open water tank.

I live in a climate were aquaponics would have to be done indoors because of the very cold winter.

I'm thinking all the waste from the rabbits can drop down into the tank. Over time, it breaks down in an aerobic environment (maybe with shrimp?) and the water is circulated through the growing beds as usual.

I'm thinking rabbits because they usually produce stinky effluent, their effluent isn't as "hot" as chickens, and they don't like living together so keeping them in cages is more suitable than incorporating a more social animal like a chicken.

Anyone tried this as an experiment?
 
Nick Kitchener
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Yes Raken houses are cool. This is an alternative idea where you can easily and cleanly transport the nutrient byproducts.
 
gardener
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I like it!
Peeponics,  with rabbits as the  pee providers.
Easier to close the loop than with fish, rabbits eat most of the  produce that we eat.

Diego Footer has a few videos on a clever wormcomposting device that does much the same thing.
The Worm Tap: https://youtu.be/y5caoQ_EEuY

I wonder if the rabbits would be better off not directly over the sump tank.
The humidity might be bad for their lungs.
An flat plastic panel with low edges placed at a sharp angle under the rabbits  would divert the urine and poo.
You could use a pump on a timer to recirculate water to the top of the diverter, cleaning the  surface and aerating the water.
 
gardener
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William Bronson wrote:The humidity might be bad for their lungs.



Maybe use some straw or hay bedding on top of the wire floor? They will need hay anyway. I don't know if it would reduce humidity; I guess it depends on temperature (but they don't like it too hot anyway).
I'll soon experiment with using daphnia as the cleanup crew in a small water container, and I saw that someone was breeding them in a tank (as fish food) and throwing hay in the water, for them to feed on (as it decomposes).
Rabbits need hay all the time, so if it was falling from their cage into the water, together with droppings, it could feed more things like daphnia and then also fish? There could be lots of aquatic plants too...
 
I agree. Here's the link: https://woodheat.net
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