Aquaponic Gardening

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I'm brand new to AP but have been reading and, hopefully, studying for about a year or so. During that time, I knew I wanted to have tilapia as my fish, but am fairly sure I won't be able to sustain temps that they need during Spring, Fall and Winter (it is Washington, after all).

My AP system is in a hoop house with 6mil cover, 330gal IBC FT with 1 gravel bed and 1 dwc bed so far. 

I began thinking trout, but am pretty sure they'll go insane in the heat we're having.

So, I hope y'all would help me out by letting me know what fish you're using in your Western Washington AP systems... especially if you aren't heating or cooling your water.

Thanks so much!

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Replies to This Discussion

Grow tilapia in the summer and blue gil the rest of the time, another fish that can take the cold.

Thank you, Linda. That's a great idea.

Yellow Perch is another good species that is available everywhere.

What about housing the trout outside, they do not have to be in the heat.

Trout are really picky about water temp., and oxygenation. They require a lot of cold moving water. 

Blue gill, Pumpkin seed sunfish,  perch or catfish will do fine.  Maybe bass...

They could all be outside, they all have an acclimation range I agree, I suppose I must be too picky about my water quality.

I do want fish for harvesting, so I'm not a big fan of going with smaller fish (blue gill, crappie, etc...). Catfish I've thought about just a little bit but didn't know what their temperature range is.  Could they take the colder temps during the winters here and the warm temps during the summer?

Chris thanks for the honest statement on growing fish in the NW.  I have grown tilapia, cat fish, blue gil, shumunkin, and gold fish.  I didn't like the taste of the tilapia, sold the blue gil and cat fish, and found that shubunkin and gold fish gave me the best results for growing veggies.  I still have some cat fish.  I grew a tomato plant with shubunkin in a 50 gallon fish tank and a half blue barrel that produced 70 pounds of tomatoes. 

One of the members of the NW Aquaponic group had them.  Contact Anne Phillip (Micro Mobius) for who it was.  Check with local fish stores.  There's a koi store in outer SE that might carry them,  I feed them like goldfish.  I had 15 plus a pleco in a 50 gallon barrel.  All did very well.  I sold them when I temporarily shut my system down.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I really appreciate the feedback.  I think I'm heading in the direction of catfish but not quite sure on this yet. Still a little time to decide, though not long.

Finally got my system up and running... what a relief. Cycling now with some goldfish. Having decided to go with catfish, I'm struggling to find them for sale. And, when I do find them, they won't ship. 

Any ideas on where to find channel cats in the South Puget Sound area? Thanks a lot for any help!

Trout  really are the native fish to have in the Northwest, I've hatched and raised, Rainbow trout

and Brown trout from eyed eggs. they just need to be in the shade in cool water. Heating water is

inefficient. Done tilapia but they have problems in the winter below 50 F.

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