Farming fish in 



your own backyard — the basics 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



A tilapia raised at Sea Grant's Aquaculture Demonstration Project 



Backyard aquaculture can be as 

 simple as stocking a farm pond with 

 catfish, bream and bass for harvest 

 with a hook and line. Or, with time and 

 money to invest, fish can be raised in 

 backyard pools or greenhouses, using 

 the methods of intensive culture. 



Backyard aquaculture is a fledgling 

 enterprise in the United States. 

 Private research companies like the 

 Rodale Research Institute, the New 

 Alchemy Institute and the Foundation 

 for Self-Sufficiency are sponsoring 

 small-scale aquaculture research and 

 making inroads into reducing its costs. 

 At UNC Sea Grant's Aquaculture 

 Demonstration Project in Aurora, 

 scientists are studying small-scale and 

 commercial aquaculture, using eels, 

 yellow perch, tilapia, rainbow trout 

 and other species. 



On a large-scale, commercial basis, 

 two fishes, trout and catfish, are prov- 

 ing to be excellent culture species. 

 Both are grown commercially in North 

 Carolina. North Carolina's cold-water 

 mountain streams make an excellent 

 habitat for trout. Already 35 commer- 

 cial, full-time trout farms are 

 operating in this state, making it the 

 second largest trout-farming state 

 behind Idaho. There are 50 catch-out 

 ponds where the public pays to fish for 

 trout. 



"I think North Carolina has the 

 greatest potential for (trout) growth," 

 says Charles Johnson, fishery training 

 specialist for Haywood Technical 

 College. "We have the benefit in that 

 we have a better growing season 

 because we have very little weather 

 when the fish don't grow." Trout grow 

 best in waters between 38°F and 70°F, 

 the normal range of water tem- 

 peratures in the North Carolina moun- 

 tains, Johnson says. 



Johnny Foster of the Aquaculture 

 Demonstration Project says that it ap- 

 pears rainbow fingerlings can be raised 

 in North Carolina's coastal waters dur- 

 ing the winter. Foster has tested this 

 idea by growing rainbow trout in cages 

 in South Creek at the Aurora 

 laboratory. The trout have prospered 

 and have adapted well to brackish 

 water, Foster says. 



While trout farming is a growing en- 

 terprise in western North Carolina, a 

 few commercial catfish farms are 



operating in the eastern part of the 

 state. Catfish grow best in warm 

 waters. In Mississippi, the catfish- 

 farming capital of the world, almost 

 25,000 acres of ponds were in produc- 

 tion in 1979. Throughout the United 

 States, 76,680,000 pounds of cultured 

 catfish valued at $53,572,000 were sold 

 in 1980. 



At Lake Waccamaw, Robert Bey 

 and Neil Allen are into catfish farming 

 in a big way. Last year they sold over 

 8,000 pounds of farm-raised catfish, 

 mainly to Raleigh restaurants. This 



year Bey says he's putting 40,000 fin- 

 gerlings in eight raceways in hopes of 

 harvesting 3000 pounds of catfish per 

 raceway. 



After studying fish and wildlife 

 management at Wayne Community 

 College in Goldsboro, Bey took off for 

 the Delta — Mississippi, Alabama and 

 Florida — to see how they raised cat- 

 fish. He used some of the methods that 

 he saw there and combined them with 

 some ideas of his own to build Buck 

 Trail Aqua Farm on the shores of Lake 

 Waccamaw. 



Besides catfish, Bey raises tilapia, 

 which eat the excess vegetation grow- 

 ing in his raceways. He is also ex- 

 perimenting with large Asian prawn, 



and he has started a catfish hatchery 

 that he hopes will keep his raceways 

 stocked. 



But Bey says that beginners plan- 

 ning any commercial aquaculture en- 

 terprise on a large scale should spend 

 several years raising fish on a small 

 scale. "There are a lot of things you 

 need to learn before you start putting 

 big money into it," he says. 



One of the easiest ways to set up a 

 small-scale aquaculture project is to 

 use a farm pond or water source 

 already on your property, says Ron 



Hodson, director of Sea Grant's 

 Aquaculture Demonstration Project. 

 "There are a substantial number of 

 farm ponds that go unused every year 

 that could be used to raise fish for food 

 or recreation," he says. 



A well-built and properly managed 

 recreational pond can yield from 100 

 pounds to 300 pounds of fish for each 

 acre of water surface. In piedmont and 

 eastern North Carolina where waters 

 are warm you can stock ponds with 

 largemouth bass, bream and catfish. 

 Ponds 5,000 feet above sea level in 

 western North Carolina are usually 

 cold enough to grow trout. 



A pond should be stocked with the 

 right kinds and numbers of fish for the 



"There are a lot of things you need to know before 

 you start putting big money into it" 



— Robert Bey 



