Rays on a budget- My (somewhat long) story w/pics

[andyroo]

Heavy...
Sorry, mate, sounds like you're in a vortex, but the Rocky (semi)quote suggests you're scrapping your way back - good.

I'm not in the loop, but the people I see making (retirement?) income with home-breeding are in guppies. Seems like a lot of work at pennies-per, but apparently they just churn & are relatively easy-sell with minimal hustle.

Option #2 is in pet-foods: crickets & wire-worms to focus on the fishy-field, then frozen mice/rats as you get further down that rabbit-hole. Considering where you are now, a whole-frozen gut-loaded juvenile Oreochromis sp. (3"?) specifically as a monster-fish-food might be interesting, it being a premium item fitting with your current infrastructure(?) & connections. To tray-freeze individually & sell in a re-sealing baggie would make thawing & feeding simple for people with only one or two large fish (75% of people with arowana, piranha or Dovii), so the customer doesn't need to thaw the whole bag. Tegu & monitor people would be all over this option, too. Could package according to what they are gut-loaded with
<https://www.amazon.com/Vacuum-Sealers/b?ie=UTF8&node=1090768>
Michigan had some pretty good entrepreneurial grants the last time I looked - maybe worth checking out

Back to crickets, they'll give you a sustained, easy income within this field, plus much interest from the WholeFoods set which suggests an expansive future. Story: my brother's lads (2@~10?) went out in his hayfield with butterfly nets & collected a huge number of grasshoppers over an afternoon this past August. They then froze, oven-roasted, pepper-salted into little ziplocks & sold at the farmer's market. They branded them as "Jamie's Field Prawns" with a groovy little logo, though it was pretty obvious what they were and the nephews were honest about it regardless. AND- they sold-out in 30minutes with $50bucks in-pocket for each of 'em.

Thinking out loud...

 

[Clearwater guy]

I like brainstorming sessions. You bring some good ideas. The fish food idea is one I had considered before, but not quite in that way.

I had just started breeding the Tilapia for a plan this fall, until $2200 worth of stuff went wrong, starting with an out of pocket ER visit in Costa Rica (Golden Dorado anyone?). I was going to move the fish into a new make-shift greenhouse and put a woodburner in there, but instead I'm sitting here broke again.

I had started to look for work, And then I realized that everything I'm qualified for is either going to break my body (auto tech),or my mind (shift work). And then My RA flared up and I now question whether I could stand on my feet for 8 hours, every day. At least I can rest when I need to doing the stuff at home.

I have come up with this idea to use the leftover fish water, after removing solids, and growing some food crops, to grow a bunch of algae. I think I can grow it on "curtains", so to speak, in a vertical way. Then, eventually that would be what the fish mostly eat. I still want to produce human food, but I'm not sure how far I can go with Tilapia for that...Aripaima would be a good step, they are catching on- but I would need way more space than I could afford to heat up here to do that.

Some stupid company beat me to the punch, and now gallons of brand name "fish ****"are being sold at hydroponics stores for way more than it's worth. They call it a beneficial bacteria rood zone miracle blah blah...lol.

 

[andyroo]

Arapaima is interesting- we sketched a business plan for same in Saskatchewan in '01. Two-dozen above-ground swimming pools in an insulated greenhouse, the #23 & #24 as aquaponic filtration. Sask's very sunny place, particualrly in winter, so good insulation & solar heat -passive & electrovoltaic(spelling)- & a windmill & power-mains connection backup.

Air-breathing, which allows 100+hrs for fresh (live) national/global shipping if you're Ok with abject cruelty, and big size & golden (hues) for the banquets/weddings/events/show-off market. IE: very high-end.

Top-predatory so can grow 'em on chicks, rats, bunnies and/or chicken offal, thus not fussing with water (tilapia or carp) or even imported foods. Finish them with X-weeks of whole carp for flavour & maybe colour. For you (MI), said carp can be invasive grass carp to bump your Green-marketability.

However, you're not going to start there without a $7+figures investor, benefactor or grant.
Recommendation: go to Lowes and buy a couple of rectangular totes/Tupperware boxes, then go on Amazon & get a starter-culture of crickets <https://www.eatcrickster.com/blog/cricket-farming>

 

[Matteus]

Wow. It took me roughly 4 days to get through this crazy wild ride.

Almost 10 years later still haven’t given up. Well done Sir. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.

If you are serious about getting set up with big pools/ponds for food another fast grower is pacu, not sure about the breeding aspect of them but within a year they are usually 20” and solid. Also have heard they taste really good. The downside is that once you have them that long you won’t want to feed them to anything or anyone because they are very personable and have neat personalities.

 

[Clearwater guy]

Haven't posted much, but my brain has been going crazy. To be simple- I think I can do Aquaponics the opposite of what it's ever been done. It's always done as a ratio that the plants can utilize the nutrients.... But I think I can go crazy with the fish and use the poop to generate heat and electric. This is the Greenest of all green ideas. I'll have to start small, but that might be ok. Still would utilize passive solar and such for every advantage.