Shrimp farming in Montana

Hi All;
Just learned about this.  
They are putting in a state of the art shrimp farm in Noxon ,Montana!
To many good things like bio char and fertilizers for me to explain .

Here is the website!  https://aquaprawnics.com/

Twenty miles from my door there will be safe seafood for sale!  And fertilizer and Bio char!!!
Whoo Hoo  we have not eaten shrimp in years !  Can't wait for them to open a counter to the public!

Looks amazing, Thomas.

I would love to do this, I would love to be able to buy from one, for shrimp, biochar, and fertilizer, and I would be delighted to have one in my community.

Admittedly, I instantly want to plug a small salmon operation into it, but that's my want to forever complicate systems and stack functions where appropriate.

I will have to keep an eye on these guys.

Thanks again!

-CK

How interesting! I've just been discussing the need for stacking functions in ocean-based farming applications, so it would be really interesting to know what "inputs" they're using to get the advertised "outputs".  Since I don't believe in perpetual motion machines, I always want to know what and where the inputs are. One big problem with fish farming is the feed sources are frequently unsustainable. Considering the amount of food that goes to land-fills or compost, and the fact that many fish think black soldier fly larvae are yummy, there are options for companies that think outside the box. Hopefully this company will do so and publicize for "quality", "local", "humane", etc rather than join the rat-race to the bottom of "cheap is the only thing that matters".

There is a gentleman raising and selling shrimp on his farm in Charlo Montana.  His brother is doing the same thing in Northern Idaho.

I have serious doubts, so be careful before you are tempted into investing
these people have plans to grow shrimps and pretend they have succeeded
but I can find nowhere on their website what shrimp species

Pretty cool. I've dreamt of doing something like this but it has remained at the state of wishful thinking.
I do have a question, however: Instead of dealing with the prefect salinity of ocean water, why not raise fresh water shrimp? I first ate them near Sturgis, on a motorcycle trip. They were HUGE. At first, we didn't believe that such a critter existed but the owner sat us down and said: Today, you are going to eat sweet water shrimp. They grow fast as well: in 4 months, they grow to 20 g., which is sellable size [ours were way bigger, more like little lobsters!] The juveniles start in brackish water but later, they swim in freshwater. Really!
Here is a look at them on a plate. They could only fit 2!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobrachium_rosenbergii
Those are the kind I'd like to raise if I were going into prawn farming. A number of folks around the world are doing it too, so there must be some "how tos" to get started.
Here is a much more "technical" explanation:
https://thefishsite.com/articles/cultured-aquaculture-species-giant-river-prawn

I have been in the aquaculture business for over 30 years. I have seen so many operations start with a lot of fanfare, state of the art technology and optimistic production figures, only to fail quietly down the road with investors and suppliers left with nothing or very little.
I have also seen aquaculturists that started out small and quietly and now dominate the market for their particular product, still quiet but very profitable.

Steve Mendez wrote:I have been in the aquaculture business for over 30 years. I have seen so many operations start with a lot of fanfare, state of the art technology and optimistic production figures, only to fail quietly down the road with investors and suppliers left with nothing or very little.
I have also seen aquaculturists that started out small and quietly and now dominate the market for their particular product, still quiet but very profitable.

True. It is called "the enthusiasm of the neophyte", and I'm sure most of us have invested in projects that petered out. [That is why I have not started my pond yet, among other projects]. What we need is the guidance of folks like you, folks who have done aquaculture successfully for so many years.
What are you growing in your system? Please tell us more about your operation. How did you get started. Was it expensive? What kind of setbacks would you warn us against?
I quite agree that starting small and slowly increasing your production may work better than jumping with both feet in right away, taking on so much debt that one ends up failing. I would start with an aquarium where the shrimp is just a bottom cleaner for, say, tilapias, and as I figure out the proper brackishness/ salinity and what food, and how much food... Then I might go in, if it isn't too expensive.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

I quite agree that starting small and slowly increasing your production may work better than jumping with both feet in right away, taking on so much debt that one ends up failing.

I did a *lot* of reading about this subject at one point before deciding I couldn't think of an energy-efficient way of doing it, but the fact that struck me most was just how much "veggie" bed were required to clean the water (particularly of the nitrogen) of a relatively small number of fish. The water is being circulated through the roots of the plants, so that requires the water to be at a temperature that plants like which for many popular crops is in the 70f/19C vacinity. Where I live, that pretty much requires a warm greenhouse - even my house isn't reliably that warm most of the year and the humidity would be a killer in my climate if it was in the house. I didn't explore just growing water plants for biomass to clear the nitrogen and other wastes.

Short answer - yes, aquaponics is a fun thing to play with, and I absolutely believe it can be done well, safely, humanely, and with true sustainability - but it might take just the right climate and circumstances to do so, along with people who are truly good at thinking outside the box and coming up with creative solutions!

I feel that trying to close the loop in the hydroponic system is often prohibitive because of the amount of growing matter needed to clean the water, and the difference in temperature requirements between the aquatic and terrestrial loops of the system.

This might be the reason for three parallel systems that have dynamic points of intersection.

Ferrogation could easily work to build soil in a larger system designed to accept it. On-contour alley-silviopasturage or alley-cropping with the right mix of food and non-food plants could easily benefit from the nutrient load.

I think covered pools or tanks could be used with active turbulent and bubbling aeration to culture algae of specific types, either for harvest and dessication as I believe is done with spirulina, or for harvesting and composting to make soil.

The idea of freshwater shrimp is exciting to me. It makes my mind go to places where it's perfectly reasonable to expect to be able to have shrimp and salmon and catfish coming off a land-based, resilient and regenerative intensive horticulturally-minded system of systems, producing not only food for the people and animals in and adjacent to it, but also fuel wood, lumber, animal and plant fibre, and above all, soil.

-CK

Jay Angler wrote:Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

I quite agree that starting small and slowly increasing your production may work better than jumping with both feet in right away, taking on so much debt that one ends up failing.

I did a *lot* of reading about this subject at one point before deciding I couldn't think of an energy-efficient way of doing it, but the fact that struck me most was just how much "veggie" bed were required to clean the water (particularly of the nitrogen) of a relatively small number of fish. The water is being circulated through the roots of the plants, so that requires the water to be at a temperature that plants like which for many popular crops is in the 70f/19C vacinity. Where I live, that pretty much requires a warm greenhouse - even my house isn't reliably that warm most of the year and the humidity would be a killer in my climate if it was in the house. I didn't explore just growing water plants for biomass to clear the nitrogen and other wastes.
Short answer - yes, aquaponics is a fun thing to play with, and I absolutely believe it can be done well, safely, humanely, and with true sustainability - but it might take just the right climate and circumstances to do so, along with people who are truly good at thinking outside the box and coming up with creative solutions!

Yep. I understand the principle of aquaculture but I don't think I'd venture into it: There is a lot of intricate knowledge and some serious investments. Two things on the abundance of nitrogen. there is a plant that lives in circulating water which has an enormous capacity for sucking nitrogen out of water. AND, it is edible. It is watercress. As a Water Officer for my little town, we get complaints about too much nitrogen being passed downgradient. I would encourage farmers who want to live in harmony with their neighbors to grow watercress in the ditches. Here, in zone 4b, I've seen some water cress in some ditches, so it is a perennial, even here. [Or if it dies, it reproduces abundantly!
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2009/04/13/wonder-weeds/

Hi All;
We just came home with 2# of beautiful fresh shrimp on ice.
All 26 of them...    13 shrimp per pound! Holy cow batman these are some super colossal size shrimp.
The ziplock bag they were in has a temperature monitor to let you know they are still fresh and safe to consume!

Liz is making Shrimp scampi with garlic butter and wine , she will serve it over jasmine rice...oh my
This will be the first seafood we have eaten in over ten years!
To say we are looking forward to it is an understatement!  

I hope Aquaprawnics is successful. It looks like they have a quality product.

Wow, they look amazing :D

Working and being part of the aquaculture industry, whenever I hear indoor shrimp farming and state of the art I always go how long will it last. From my understanding shrimp are finiky creatures, very susceptible to disease and when you talk northern states/Canada hard to get a good supply for young stock. I recall hearing a place I think it was in Alberta that tried it and didn't even last 2 years.
Hope they do well but only time will tell.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi All;
We just came home with 2# of beautiful fresh shrimp on ice.
All 26 of them...    13 shrimp per pound! Holy cow batman these are some super colossal size shrimp.
The ziplock bag they were in has a temperature monitor to let you know they are still fresh and safe to consume!

From Aquaprawnics? Awesome!

Yes they were!  
Firm and tasty , we should have made a dipping sauce to go with them but smiles were abounding!
Our first shrimp in years!
We have another batch in the freezer. All processed up and waiting to become dinner!  

My favourite sauce is the butter you pan-fry them in. That, or that horseradish marinara stuff they call seafood sauce.

Looks amazing. Glad to hear they're tasty.

-CK

The problem with recommending planting watercrest in ditches, etc, is that it is rather invasive and listed as an invasive in 46 states (see: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/nasturtium_officinale.shtml).  That said, in an enclosed system I can see it working, but it might take some special permitting to use it in an operation -- to ensure that it does not escape into the wild.