self sufficient life

Fish farming

I have enjoyed keeping fish for a long time. Looking for something that could make some money in the winter time, when crops don’t grow on the land, fish farming sounds like a good option. There are several species of fish that could be breed economically in our central European region. I would probably keep carp, tench and zander.

Fish farming can be done in two ways: extensive (pond) or intensive (closed-circulation) Extensive aquaculture requires very big ponds that are lightly stocked. You will need about 15 square meters (160 square feet) of pond surface area for each carp. The total water volume doesn’t really matter since the food supply in the pond is following the natural food chain, starting with the algae growing in the sunlight hitting the pond, making the surface area of the pond the limiting factor for how much fish you can grow.

With intensive aquaculture you can keep as many fish as you can fit in your body of water, as long as you make sure that the water is clean and that there is enough oxygen and food available for the fish. To keep the water clean and oxygenated a good filtering system is needed and a set of pumps to move the water through the filters.

Since a patch of land that is big enough for extensive fish farming would just cost too much, I will work with a closed-circulation system. I will have to look into the total cost of different systems. The cheapest option would probably be digging a big pond, but the fish production would be limited in the winter time. A more profitable system would consist of indoor ponds, making it possible to achieve maximum growth year round.