Need help with setting up commercial arapaima gigas hatchery/farm

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Diogenes

Diogenes

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
2,407
21
68
Birmingham, AL
Howdy,

My father in law is looking to setup a commercial fishery on a farm in alabama and he wants to raise arapaima. I was wondering if you guys knew where I could locate some fry. How do they breed? Pairs? Groups? How would one setup a hatchery for these guys? What kind of pond setup wild work?

Thanks
 
Sorry to burst your(his) bubble, but Alabama is way too cold to breed tropical fish.

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joe jaskot said:
Could possibly be done in heated greenhouses, but might be expensive to build and operate.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Arapaima obviously need lots of space so the ponds and greenhouses would need to be huge. The heating costs would be so high that the Arapimas he'd breed couldn't compete in price with those that are being bred in South America.

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Hmmm....

Well the idea actually was for a heated pond system. It's still a no go? Our climate is sub-tropical. Wouldn't require a huge investment of energy to simulate a tropical body of water, and the market price for arapaima as food commodity is quite high.
 
Not really practical. Cost thousands or dollars to heat.You would be way better off raising sturgeons or paddle fish for caviar. Or catfish tilapia bass etc.


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The juveniles are extremely delicate... and then they grow at a rate of two inches per month... it wouldnt be practical at all.

Also, I may be wrong, but dont they migrate to spawn? Many large river fish do. That would make it pretty much impossible, wouldnt it?
 
Not to derail, but let me be the first one to say that you married into an awesome family. :thumbsup:


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They have figured out how to breed them in ponds in Asia and SA, probably w/ hormones though and Im not sure if it'll be healthy to serve hormone fish lol. You'd need a separate pond for the mother and fry because the fry live off a sort of milk the mother excretes, I'm not sure if large males would eat the other fishs fry or not. It might be better just to import a large amount of 8-12 inchers, raise them to a large size, harvest, then do it again.

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Diogenes said:
Hmmm....

Well the idea actually was for a heated pond system. It's still a no go? Our climate is sub-tropical. Wouldn't require a huge investment of energy to simulate a tropical body of water, and the market price for arapaima as food commodity is quite high.
Click to expand...

I'd hardly state your area is sub tropical. Didn't it just snow there? You'd be spending a lot of money just to heat those ponds.
Also arapaima isn't a popular food fish here in the states so now you'd be running into another problem with permits to export fish.


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