Where can I get information on raising fish on a small scale?
Bill MEbane of Woods Hole, a famous Ichthyologist proved that you can grow 85 lbs twice a year in a 55 gallon drum and a 4 x8 foot aquaponics garden.
As a result, I have 250,000 gallons of streams and tanks but not fish yet (but soon)
Bill is gone, gone private. ECHO teaches pond work but not permaculture. though it’s coming
Jay Nielsen M.D.
Missions International of America
103 Wentworth Court, Perrysburg, Ohio 43551
Cell: 419-360-9490
Private Fax: 419-406-4428
Hi Jay or Bill, Could I get an email (or better yet a pdf) with a list of equipment I could buy to do something like this and instructions for setting it up? I am in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. Are you doing this in America? What type of fish are you raising? Are you with Mission International of America and does MIA work in Indonesia or Malaysia? If so, could we partner together? My email is craigggg@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Craig Soderberg
Also see the collection of information on fish production here on ECHOcommunity, some of the documents make reference to Bill Mebane’s work in Haiti – http://edn.link/collection-fish
That question is really too brief for any of us to give an adequate response. We don’t know what your goals are… Are you trying to make money or do you want a hobby? Are you in the tropics or in a temperate zone? How much money are you thinking of investing? Do you have intentions to demonstrate as a function of extension work or train others or is it for personal? My first frame of reference is the lesser developed countries where I work as a missionary and most of ECHO communication is relate to that since ECHO is “Educational Concerns for the Hungry”. I personally do not encourage anyone to bring aquaponics here to the lesser developed countries. Aquaponics is all the rage now but in my opinion it is a fad and everyone is going to argue with me and give examples that they work. I am willing to say what is unpopular because I care about what Westerners do to try to help lesser developed countries and all the wasted money that should have been spent on something a whole lot more productive. I am not going to argue with them but I have traveled enough throughout to see too many Westerners trying to make them work and not finding success and then due to the complicated nature of them the local people having the same struggles when we set them up for them as well. Long term success with aquaponics is the exception rather than the rule in lesser developed countries. Why would you bring a complicated and expensive system in when a pond and even animals next to the pond or over the pond manuring the water is so much more simple and feasible? I am really struggling to figure this one out.None of my local aquaculturalist friends in the region are promoting them. It is just the Westerners who are bringing them in without a good understanding of appropriate technology.