The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Renewables => Topic started by: edessex on April 18, 2013, 01:46:24 pm
-
I'm intending to set up a couple of rainwater tanks to collect water for the chickens. I read sonewhere about keeping small fish in the water tanks to eat any bugs breeding in the water, and to clean the water and tank.
Does anyone here keep fish for that reason?
I will need to top the tank up every now and then with tap water, will that kill the fish?
-
I keep goldfish in my waterbutts as I get eaten alive by mozzies otherwise ;D
A friend keeps them in her water troughs too :thumbsup:
-
So you don't need to feed them either I presume :excited:
-
Great :thumbsup: I read this one out of curiosity but I shall be getting goldfish for all our butts - mosquito's are awful here & I'm usually eaten alive every evening.
-
So you don't need to feed them either I presume :excited:
Mine have been in the same water butt for 5 years and I have never fed them!
They eat enough nasty bitey things :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
-
What kind of fish do you use?
-
We've got lids on all our water butts. Will that stop mosquitoes from breeding?
-
We've got lids on all our water butts. Will that stop mosquitoes from breeding?
nope they'll find away little sods
fish in water butts are fine so long as they neither run dry or freeze solid in winter
goldfish are very hardy and will tolerate some tap water being added in necessary to keep them alive.
-
Wow! what a great idea - If you don't mind me asking a silly question, how many fish to a butt?
-
Yes - and what kind of fish??
Very interested in this :-)
-
Sorry if this is a silly question, but when I suggested this to the OH, the first thing he asked was "Don't the fish crap in the bottom of the butt make the water grotty for the animals to drink?"
-
ok i was assuming we were talking water for veggies where fish poop means food!!!
-
interesting post, we have 2 26000 litre tanks we run 17 toilets from them and water chickens /dog/patch
we have no light in our tanks can I still put fish in ?
How about carp just thinking we could then eat a few now and then
-
so long as the water is flowing through the tanks build up of ammonium will not be a problem. Stagnant water will lead to high ammonia content and de-oxygenation which will lead to fish deaths. you can use fish in aquaculture where fish poo is broken down into ammonium nitrate as a fertiliser by microbes which then feeds plants grown in the water
-
I have googled this subject I have spoken to a couple of fish farms no conclusive answer, my question is,
I have 2 very large rainwater tanks (really large) we use the water for toilets, chickens, veg
I would like to grow fish (ie carp or another suggestion) to eat, my tanks are underground so dark.
I don't want to trial & error as this would mean fish suffering for no reason.
-
Carp are not the greatest to eat, taste soily apparently.
Fish farms are usually open, I think they need sunlight, so underground tanks wouldn't work...
-
I have googled this subject I have spoken to a couple of fish farms no conclusive answer, my question is,
I have 2 very large rainwater tanks (really large) we use the water for toilets, chickens, veg
I would like to grow fish (ie carp or another suggestion) to eat, my tanks are underground so dark.
I don't want to trial & error as this would mean fish suffering for no reason.
I have 10 common carp and 20 small goldfish in a 1000L tank. I use them as part of my small backyard aquaponics system.
The tank is kept in the garage with no natural light. It's dark most of the time in there apart from a few minutes a day when I go in to check on them. The goldfish have been there for over a year and are doing very well. The carp have been in there for 8 months and are growing just fine. Most fish don't need sunlight. Think of how dark it would be at the bottom of a muddy lake especially if the lake has some water sports activity going on. The worst thing that happens to goldfish is that their colour fades.
It's a good idea for your tanks but here comes the rub... Goldfish are very hardy but any "real" fish for eating needs to be kept in the right conditions. You need to keep the water oxygenated and ideally you need to filter a tanks worth of water at least every few hours. You can oxygenate with a small air pump but will need to have a backup plan if it's mains powered to ensure the fish get oxygen if there is a power cut. For carp, think about 50L of air, per hour, per fish.
As for filtering, you have some very large tanks so you would need to work out how much water you use per day and how quickly it is replaced. You *could* get away without having to use any sort of pump or filter if you keep your fish stock very low.
Slightly off topic but common carp taste just fine if they are kept in clean, well filtered water. We had one out of our system just last week and it was very tasty.
-
In common with almost everybody else who read this thread, I did so out of curiosity: well who can resist reading about people keeping goldfish in their butt?
After reading it all I'm now thinking it's not such a bad idea for the water supply to my poly tunnel (when I get it).
Thanks for a very interesting read - so far.