I can walk to several lakes/rivers within an hour of my house and catch more trout than I can carry in about two hours. I will not be auquafarming during an apocalypse.
Apocalypse Fish Rearing
- Thread starter patient33
- Start date
I'd say forget snakeheads and anything that needs or prefers a high protein insect/rat/vermin diet. Providing that diet in and of itself would be a great deal of work and in a true survival situation you would be much better off eating that protein yourself. You want a fish like carp or tilapia that can convert things you can't eat, like pond scum and duckweed, into tasty fish meats. That's why fish like tilapia and grass carp are successful aquaculture species.
Personally, I'd be much more inclined to keep guineapigs as a food source. Very easy to keep and transport, reproduce very quickly, can live quite happily on pretty much nothing but grass and water, and I'm told they taste quite good.
Japanese quails might also be a good choice. They are very easy to keep (I think several are often kept indoors in about a 4x2x1' cage), mature quickly, reproduce incredibly fast, produce eggs you can eat and the birds taste very good themselves. Only significant drawbacks may be I'm not sure exactly what you'd feed them and their chicks may need to be incubated and raised by the keeper.
Personally, I'd be much more inclined to keep guineapigs as a food source. Very easy to keep and transport, reproduce very quickly, can live quite happily on pretty much nothing but grass and water, and I'm told they taste quite good.
Japanese quails might also be a good choice. They are very easy to keep (I think several are often kept indoors in about a 4x2x1' cage), mature quickly, reproduce incredibly fast, produce eggs you can eat and the birds taste very good themselves. Only significant drawbacks may be I'm not sure exactly what you'd feed them and their chicks may need to be incubated and raised by the keeper.
I'd have to agree with tilapia. These omnivorous fish can be fed inexpensively on home-grown plants like duckweed. A project in this area uses cow manure from a dairy farm to fertilize shallow ponds for the purpose of rapidly culturing duckweed. The duckweed is harvested (along with associated insect larvae, nematodes, and small crustacea) to feed tilapia in an indoor facility. Waste dumps from the closed loop backflushing is returned to the duckweed ponds.
The tilapia do fine in overcrowded conditions with little interspecies territorial aggression (the majority of the male population is removed to further decrease aggression). The fecundity of the species isn't that large but, the large eggs combined with the mouthbrooding trait result in a higher surviving clutch yield. The larger fry are also able to begin on prepared foods since they're not small enough to require specialized micro foods. The fry grow rapidly resulting in adults being able to recondition more quickly to produce another brood.
The tilapia do fine in overcrowded conditions with little interspecies territorial aggression (the majority of the male population is removed to further decrease aggression). The fecundity of the species isn't that large but, the large eggs combined with the mouthbrooding trait result in a higher surviving clutch yield. The larger fry are also able to begin on prepared foods since they're not small enough to require specialized micro foods. The fry grow rapidly resulting in adults being able to recondition more quickly to produce another brood.
I will just buy and extra gun and steal your fish lol Thanks for putting in all the hard work for me
Im sensing most of you don't have fish occurring naturally around you? If an appocalpypse was something to worry about, I mean really worried about enough to start planning an aqua farm you should be able to take it seriously enough to move somewhere where fish and mammals are naturally abundant.
Thanks Oddball and Burto. That was very informative and it was exactly what I was looking for. Herbivorous fish would be a serious survival advantage, and I'm sure Tilapia are a lot more manageable in crowded tank conditions than something like Channa. The Channa, Gar, and Cats still get points for not needing highly oxygenated water and the associated equipment. Tilapia are very tolerant of water temperature fluctuations right?
As far as securing duckweed - I'm not sure how readily this can be cultivated - will any manure suffice?
Carp have a strong advantage if they can live off pond scum and filter feeding - but can these conditions for carp be reproduced in a 'quarantined' or limited mobility and limited access-to-water sources type of situation/setup?
Insect eaters are still preferable as True apocalypse fish because access to insects is still more likely than access to water. I pictured myself transporting the eggs in an incubator to my house or temporary dwelling and trying to minimize travel and calorie expenditure - exposure to looters and cannibals afterwards in a defensive farm setup.
Going to water sources is a calculated risk during infrastructure collapse, they will most likely have other humans (possibly friendly - but possibly not) near them and will already be 'fished out'.
As far as securing duckweed - I'm not sure how readily this can be cultivated - will any manure suffice?
Carp have a strong advantage if they can live off pond scum and filter feeding - but can these conditions for carp be reproduced in a 'quarantined' or limited mobility and limited access-to-water sources type of situation/setup?
Insect eaters are still preferable as True apocalypse fish because access to insects is still more likely than access to water. I pictured myself transporting the eggs in an incubator to my house or temporary dwelling and trying to minimize travel and calorie expenditure - exposure to looters and cannibals afterwards in a defensive farm setup.
Going to water sources is a calculated risk during infrastructure collapse, they will most likely have other humans (possibly friendly - but possibly not) near them and will already be 'fished out'.
Big Z thanks for the heads up! But I play Fallout 3 and I'm WAAAY ahead of you in the defending my fish farm from raiders department - lol. I'm armed to the teeth and very cold blooded toward aggressive people. My catfish-farm will be the one with the human skull as a mailbox.Big_Z;4754610;4754610 said:
Thanks Darnell - Carp apears to be number one contender for title of Apocalypse Fish - lolCLDarnell;4750592;4750592 said:Here's another kudo for the carp...
Prior to 1900, fish were a valuable food resource for the US. Refrigeration wasn't being used yet and ice houses were the common places to store perishable food items. Fish were being over-harvested and transported by rail to various ice houses.
From a different website:
The results of large harvests were declining stocks of lake and river fishes at a time when the population was expanding. To answer these concerns the U.S. Congress authorized President Ulysses S. Grant to appoint the US Fish Commission in 1871 to oversee the nation's fisheries interests. Among the first tasks was to consider what species to introduce to bolster the nations supply of food fishes. By 1874 the commission after long study issued a report entitled "Fishes Especially worthy of Cultivation" It went on to say that no other species except the carp, promises so great a return in limited waters. Cited were advantages over such fish as black bass, trout, grayling and others " because it is a vegetable feeder, and although not disdaining animal matters can live on vegetation alone and can attain large weight kept in small ponds and tanks".
Trust me, I am not a fan of carp myself. But, when you asked the question, the history of carp came to mind, again, since its already been done before.
One of the best ways to survive the future is to remember the history.
Good luck!
(and you can too grow corn!)
Good Luck to you man.
