Aquaculture is the practice of raising nautical species including fish, crayfish and prawns in a closed water environment as a food source. Worldwide, humans consume over 130 tons of fish every year which supplies between 15% - 20% of the worlds intake of animal protein. Aquaculture, often referred to as aqua farming, produces about 45% of that total. So aquaculture provides a meaningful part of the world’s diet that is increasing as local fish stocks decline and the worlds populations grows.
Tilapia, a spiny-finned freshwater fish that are local principally to Africa and the Middle East, are one of the highest volume fish produced in aquaculture. Suitably, they are known as St. Peter’s fish primarily based on the popular bible story about Jesus feeding a huge crowd from 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread.
Tilapia have 1 or 2 benefits that permit them to be grown successfully as the focus of an aquaculture farm. First, they grow rapidly and progress from fingerling to market size in 6 to 7 months which enables 2 harvests every year. They also can flourish in a tank with an especially high stocking density. So measured as lbs of fish every year that can be produced from a given space tilapia are highly effective. They also are basically herbivorous and consume aquatic plant life in the tank which decreases the amount of supplemental food that the fish farmer has to provide. This makes them cheap to grow to harvest size. Finally, they become a comparatively big fish with a “non-fishy” taste that makes them a popular choice with diners.
Effective tilapia farming specifies that water temperatures be maintained across the year. The perfect temperature for rapid growth ranges between 82-86 degrees F. Maturing drops off noticeably below 68 degrees and the fish will begin to die as the temperature approaches 50 degrees. In chillier geographical locations, a tilapia farm must built indoors or should utilize a water heater to maintain the tropical temperature. Both these options, add expenses to the operation and commercial Tilapia farms in hot temperature locales have a significant cost advantage.
There exists a fair volume of controversy about the tilapi aqua farming industry with environmentalists anxious that if any of this intrusive species of fish is released into the encircling environment, it may destroy the locale fish population. Scientists have also expressed concern over the lack of sanitary standards in the business and the low level of fish oils contained in farm raised tilapia. If you're eating tilapia, the widely held consensus is to only consume fish raised in the United States.
Bob Long is a system engineer who likes fishing, sports and water gardening. If you want to learn about an expanded version of aquaculture called aquaponics, visit his website by clicking on the following links Aquaponics Fish and Aquaponics Plans.
