Raising Catfish Off grid style

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[Note: This post will go into the food subseries of the off-the-grid main series of posts.]

I saw one of those aquaponics videos and may well have it in this subseries somewhere.  One of those videos featured a cart that had a tank full of fish below, and vegetable garden above.  It looked like a pretty neat miniature farm.  Is it possible for me to do that?  Let's see what it would take.

First, for some research.  I start looking around for some videos to educate myself.  Here's a good one, maybe.

Links:  Pond Boss Magazine

This looks like an interesting info source.  It is something of a disappointment that catfish prefer grain.  I was thinking of feeding them crickets and earthworms.  However, it looks like this is about open ponds.  I'm more interested in a closed container type of arrangement.




Catfish Farming in the South

This is about 30 minutes of information, so be prepared for a long video.  It is about commercial catfish farming, which is not what I'm interested in.

I'm a little disappointed in their rate of growth.  It seems that a catfish growing from fingerling size to food size will take a year or so.  I can review the video again for that information, as it is in there.  Also, the yield expectancy per acre may tell something about what to expect.

• 6000-8000 bucks an acre capital cost
• 5000 pounds or more per acre
• how long it takes to grow out from a fingerling  about 6 to 12 months.

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Preliminary conclusions:

The above doesn't look all that economical to grow by yourself.  Consider that it takes more than 8k per acre capital cost and 5k pounds, that's well over a buck a pound per year.  It can sell for more than that of course, but still.  In my own case, I would have to obtain fingerlings and then grow them out.  How much to grow, and thus how much to pay for fingerlings?  If they cost too much, it doesn't make sense.

Doing a little arithmetic gives about 1300 square feet to make 6 oz. of catfish per day.  I'm thinking of adapting these ideas to the tanks I plan to build.  Build them inside the quadrangle, and have the veggie gardens in the greenhouses surrounding it.  The tank cannot be that deep, because there isn't much water.

It would be a challenge.  Maybe too big?