I've started planning for our aquaponics/fish
pond... I have
experience with tilapia aquaponics but know nothing but bits I've read about raising trout...
I'm trying to figure out why trout are the only fish in the
BB, there must be good reason. Tilapia has proven quite valuable to my arsenal of food production.
1. With Tilapia, if you know some interesting factoids, like about the morphing of the "ultra-male" it becomes fairly easy to build a tilapia
pond that will self-sustain production as you take fish from the pond for meals, trout aren't as easy to have reproduce, no?
2. May aquaponics (tilapia) folks say 1 pound of fish to 3 gallon final weight is the max one
should plan for; I like to keep it much lighter, so in a 14,000 gal pound I never plan to have more than maybe 1,000 pounds of fish (that's including fish of all ages/sizes)... would trout even do well in a 14,000 gal set-up?
3. I know fishiness and mercury are a concerning factor, I have always practiced having a "cleansing-drum" where I'd put Tilapia for a 2-week holding time with no food to cleans out the fishy taste and they become quite delicious (takes on any flavor you cook it with and I have at least convinced myself the mercury levels drop)... I understand this, to some, would be considered in-humane; I'm interested in feeding my family.
4. Tilapia do extremely well in "dirty water", which I think is why they are so frequently used in aquaponics; with a good bio-filter and a slow-stocking of the pond I plan to keep the
water the cleanest I ever have... would this bio-filter maybe help so that I should consider trout instead?
Is trout mainly just so darn delicious that that is the reason people go with it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What are you going to do now?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Goin straight Bob. I don’t know, get a job, find myself a gal.. or, I dunno what people do nowadays, build-a, uh, a barn maybe, paint the barn with the gal, put the gal in the barn, you know; American dream."