Made my own feed

[Perris]

It seems people only have one idea here and no other ideas can exist.

Clearly you are not reading what's here, because if you did you would see that I am frequently in disagreement with a handful of other people who hold equally strong but different views. And you are not reading what's written on linked reliable websites. If you want to trust AI and google, that's your choice. But don't confuse that with research; what you're doing is just repeating your preferred source and assuming it to be correct. Research is reading as many different views as you can and evaluating them. How are you on evaluating AI algorithms?

 

[saysfaa]

...Minnows are going to eat what is fed to them but more importantly they eat algea and decaying matter. Decaying matter is free if you have animals or a yard with plants or trees and dead leaves. Then you can begin your cycle from free decaying matter to minnows to chickens to eggs. Or decaying matter to minnows to dead decaying minnows to fly larvae ...

I like the idea of raising minnows. That might be a workable option for many people. It almost works for me.

I think feeding the whole fish would be better than feeding the parts left after the more valuable parts are extracted.

If I hadn't passed on my share of the stock tanks from the farm I grew up on, I would use a 2x8 or 2x10 ft tank. I have well water so chlorine isn't a problem in the initial fill or when adding water to keep the water level up or to adjust the temperature. People with chlorinated water can let the chlorine dissipate with time or aeration.

It needs aeration. If electricity is available, there are quite a few options. Without electricity, I would try a water- or wind-powered version first. Solar might work better for some locations. I like avoiding solar panels and batteries because they are so hard on the environment.

It probably needs shade in most locations to keep the temperature down. Or insulation - maybe burying it. Too much shade and the algae won't grow well.

Clay pots stacked in the tank would do for hiding places and spawning places.

For feed, which kind of algae matters a lot. I would inoculate the minnow tank with selected algae from my pond. I'm pretty sure I have a right kind(s) and I know that source is uncontaminated. I don't how to source algae in other regions.

Throwing random decaying material in seems very risky. And I would not feed the poop of one species to another species meant as feed for the first species. The ick factor isn't important to me but that practice is known to cause problems in general too many times to risk it when there is no good reason to.

I don't know which dead things (or living things besides algae) to try without looking up the natural diet of the species of minnows available to try. I looked up a few minnow species; it shouldn't be too hard to find a workable combination.

I think it could work well if one doesn't count the cost of the tank and aeration.

It would take increasingly more management the smaller the tank.

Or sectioning off a pond or pool of a river may work. I'm not going to try it in my pond until I think of a way to keep the raccoons out of the minnow area without checking on the fencing more than every few weeks. Hm, maybe a cage made of metal lathe?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It would take increasingly more management the smaller the tank.

Fish have a relatively narrow preferred temperature range. Your statement above is true in essentially every metric. The smaller the tank, the harder it is to maintain a stable nitrogen cycle, and the harder it is to maintain a stable temperature range. Failing at either will quickly kill your fish.

Think of the difficulties many have with a fish tank at home - inside a climate controlled environment, to which fish are neither being frequently added, or frequently removed.

This is one of the few situations where "going big" is ultimately easier to maintain, though harder and more expensive to start.

Anecdotally, a number of people who have tried aquaponics for off grid living give it up quickly due not only to the twin issues above of temp and nitrogen cycle, but also due to water loss from evaporation and slow concentration of minerals from their (often hard) water source. Or so I am led to believe from a handful of Youtube videos by numerous homesteaders. Again, that's anecdote, not fact, survey, or study.

 

[saysfaa]

Sigh. Too true. I have hard water. And I haven't solved the nitrogen/oxygen problem in my pond yet and that is maybe a half acre in surface area and has a very good spring feeding it.

The problem is it is surrounded by a woods. Fifty- plus years of leaves dropping in and trees falling in it make too much nitrogen and too little oxygen for parts of the year.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sigh. Too true. I have hard water. And I haven't solved the nitrogen/oxygen problem in my pond yet and that is maybe a half acre in surface area and has a very good spring feeding it.

The problem is it is surrounded by a woods. Fifty- plus years of leaves dropping in and trees falling in it make too much nitrogen and too little oxygen for parts of the year.

Don't feel bad, I can't get it stable in my duck pond either.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I keep a system where I grow duckweed and minnows. The 4 IBC tanks were free. I have one pump to carry water from the lower tank to the highest, then it runs naturally downhill. Minnows and duckweed are for the chickens. Minnows eat the algae and duckweed as well as mosquitos.

I do feed them, about 2 teaspoons of high protein chicken feed per day, but it's probably not necessary.

Last summer the fish didn't eat tomato roots but the fry did hide in them. Same with sweet potato and rice. But they ate lettuce and other greens right up to the waterline.

Plecos and mollies didn't survive the winter.

 

[AGeese]

I keep a system where I grow duckweed and minnows. The 4 IBC tanks were free. I have one pump to carry water from the lower tank to the highest, then it runs naturally downhill. Minnows and duckweed are for the chickens. Minnows eat the algae and duckweed as well as mosquitos.

I do feed them, about 2 teaspoons of high protein chicken feed per day, but it's probably not necessary.

Last summer the fish didn't eat tomato roots but the fry did hide in them. Same with sweet potato and rice. But they ate lettuce and other greens right up to the waterline.

Plecos and mollies didn't survive the winter.View attachment 3874933View attachment 3874936View attachment 3874937

Just curious why you thought Plecos would survive the winter?

 

[LaurenRitz]

Just curious why you thought Plecos would survive the winter?

They're a type of catfish, and a few sources I found suggested they would. Wasn't until later I learned they are considered a tropical.

I was also overly optimistic about my ability to keep the tanks heated.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

Clearly you are not reading what's here, because if you did you would see that I am frequently in disagreement with a handful of other people who hold equally strong but different views. And you are not reading what's written on linked reliable websites. If you want to trust AI and google, that's your choice. But don't confuse that with research; what you're doing is just repeating your preferred source and assuming it to be correct. Research is reading as many different views as you can and evaluating them. How are you on evaluating AI algorithms?

Perris, I have read what is here, I am not blind, dense, obtuse, biased, or uneducated. Well, I am biased against commercial feed being more nutritious and cheaper than commercial feed. When I type replies sometimes they can be a generalized and not include every person involved.

You say I am not reading what's written and choosing my preferred source. I said fish flakes are fishmeal. Even Stromcrow listed many fish flake companies with their ingredients. The first ingredient in the first one stromcrow listed is fishmeal. Most others stromcrow listed said fishmeal or salmonmeal (which is fishmeal).

I do not trust ai, microsoft, google, or any other source at their word. You must find dissenting views on a subject and make an informed decision. Now that I have made this clear, I will repeat what I said. Fish flakes are dried up ground fish (fishmeal). Yes, some companies add ingredients to it, but without the fishmeal, it is not a product.

If i take a chicken breast and put it in a brine with water salt sugar dried basil cayenne pepper overnight and then dry off the chicken breast and put salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, smoked paprika, dried cumin, brown sugar, and then heat treat it in a smoker grill or an oven and then pull it out, it is still called chicken breast even though I put so much other ingredients on it.

Do you prefer wikipedia? It is there if you want to read it.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

Fish flakes are not flaked fish like layer pellets are not pellets made up of laying hens. With the difference that fish flakes have some fishmeal in them for the same reason that some brands of layer feed has fishmeal in it.

Fish flakes are what people feed their aquarium fish and what fish farmers feed their smallest fish. Bigger fish are fed the bigger forms like pellets.

They may have once been made primarily of just fish. They are not now.

Source
".. fish feed has economic significance. In aquaculture, the fish feed can represent over 50% of the operational cost. As feed costs remain high, finding quality feed at a reasonable price is becoming a challenge for many...

Since 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been working on ways to reduce their dependence on marine fish as a source of aquaculture feed...

Sources of protein are typically fishmeal ... legumes such as soybean....

Carbohydrate is an economical source of energy for fish. It helps to reduce feed costs. It can be useful as a binding agent when manufacturing feed, especially for feed that is designed to float. Carbohydrates make up 20-30% of many commercial feeds....

Another source
"...ingredients already in use include proteins from soybeans, corn, peas, and wheat, and oils from soybean, canola, and flaxseed. .., fish-based ingredient use for Atlantic salmon has declined from 90% in the 1990s to 25% in 2020."

Edit to delete what doesn't make sense and probably isn't helpful to anyone Even if I could get it to make some sense.

Hello None of these links say that fish flakes are not primarily made of fish. When I said fish flakes are just dried up ground fish (fishmeal) I didn't mean that they don't add other ingredients to it. They do add ingredients to the fishmeal or salmonmeal for preservation reasons. But the main ingredient is fish flakes is fishmeal or any other common water creature such as shrimp.