hydroponics

Pouletic wrote:
Oh, i agree completely. I am going to look into bluegill more to see if there are any other issues i missed just to be better informed. My own design decisions are motivated by the plan to either live in southern Florida or have a small hothouse for tropicals.

Which variety do you plan on raising?

Possession and transport of live tilapia in Florida is illegal without a special permit (except blue tilapia). They can only be possessed if dead, so anglers who catch and want to eat a tilapia, other than blue tilapia, should immediately place them on ice.

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/Nonnative_FW_BlueTilapia.htm

Jonathan Byron wrote:
Which variety do you plan on raising?

Blues are some of the biggest, so i don't see any reason to bother with the more restricted species. The permit isn't impossible to get, but why hassle if not needed?

I thought I'd chip in with my 2 cents here. My Dad's the enthusiast, but I've been doing a lot of research for him, so here goes... We plan to set up an aquaponics system here in NH that incorporates a tank and trough system (pictures are of this being built) that we can use to raise lettuce, strawberries, and catfish. We will be experimenting with polyculture, which is the raising of more that one species in that system. In our case, it will be catfish teamed with native crayfish and freshwater mussels from our brook.

This isn't intended to replace gardening space, and you will see that it is being done inside Dad's high tunnel greenhouse. It is intended to supplement by providing a clean growing medium for lettuce (cleaning the heads for farmers markets is a major PITA if grown in dirt) and to lengthen the season for fresh strawberries, again as a market crop. The fish and other critters will be in-house consumption, as we won't be able to grow enough to sell. But they will be much appreciated as the cost of store-bought seafood is pretty high. And it will be nice to know what went into them.

Dad's system this year will be a temporary one, to experiment and then down the road we will build a bigger, more permanent one. Since I and my family plan to move to southern OR within 2-3 years, we will be learning so we can set up our own system there. I look forward to raising freshwater prawns - they look super yummy!