Raising koi as an alternative fish production strategy

[Kobus Jooste]

I have been taking an interest in refining some of my previous income estimates and cost calculations regarding commercial aquaponics.  One idea that keeps coming back is the potential for buying large batches of small koi, grow them on and then supply the market.  I have seen a number of posts on this forum about large US breeders selling of surplus or small fish at quite low rates.  I would like to get some more info on the topic to see how these prices compare to what is charged for koi locally.

[Kobus Jooste]

Here we have a perfectly good excuse for some in depth analysis.  The FCR, growth rates and typical feeding rates of koi should be available.  Thus, for the person taking a close look at the financials of running an AP system, we can have a look at the potential running cost benefits of Koi vs Tilapia.  I can add another benefit.  In unheated systems, koi are still eating when tilapia find the going a bit tough, thus you can get away with longer growing season / less heating costs with koi.  Thus apart from the value of the fish, the potential lower density (thus less food), there are a number of potential advantages of commercial AP with koi even for people willing to eat fish (just not the koi).

[Sahib Punjabi]

greetings Kobus, Here is a copy of an e-mail that I received recently (I receive a number of these from different vendors...somehow they think that I am a buyer of such...still good info for me to learn) "I am pleased to offer you these two Top Quality Butterfly Koi at 70% OFF of their posted price.   22" Longfin/Butterfly Ginrin Hi Utsuri $1590.   19" Longfin/Butterfly Ginrin Sanke $890.   NOW! BOTH ONLY  $750. plus FedEx S&H of $190. 2 attachments — Download all attachments   View all images   $(KGrHqR,!hQE1fCtgBlSBNl7Cz)6Dg~~_12.jpg 31K   View   Download   42cmHirenagaGinrinSankeSuda2M100.jpg 43K   View   Download

[Kobus Jooste]

Thanks Sahib.  That is quite an investment for what I am sure are magnificent fish.  If one buys these quality fish and sell most of its offspring (what other would have "culled" during the selection process) at normal prices to home hobbyists (obviously without documentation of origin or anything), would you make your money back on the original stock and then keep the sale of your prize offspring as a bonus?  This is the though pattern I am working on.

[Kobus Jooste]

Sahib, I would like to stay in touch with you regarding a concept that I am working on.  The problems with good genetics in current Mozambique tilapia is worrysome, and I am working on an alternative concept.  I want to look at koi again in a business model from two angles.  One is simply buying good quality small koi from overseas and raising them here, and the other, longer term one is to get hold of quality broodstock and starting a hatchery / grow-out operation.  I will be bugging you and the other koi guys with questions soon I hope!

[Sahib Punjabi]

Namaste Kobus my Aquapon Friend,

 

 I will willingly help you with what knowledge I have. I am a little short of time for this week organizing the Annual event for a Non-Profit that I founded. Their Annual Scholarship Awards night is this Saturday so running around like a chicken with it's head cut off at present.

 

May I suggest that you get a copy of "Koi for Dummies" and read that for an excellent base knowledge. Here are a coup;e of links of recent web adverts / businesses who sell Koi and related products. It will give you an idea of prices here in USA as well as associated lines. To me, breeding Koi is the natural path to establishing a business that helps people with the containers that Koi are going to live in...hopefully outside ponds or large tanks...which then leads one to what to use as a filter and how to use the fish waste...hello Aquaponics ;-) 

 

http://www.petsolutions.com/storefront/pond/pond-fish-plants/koi/cp...

 

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=seelsddab&v=...

 

http://www.koisale.com/

 

http://www.bonniesplants.com/Koi4Sale.html

 

Just for reference, I do not know if you know that the non-domesticated Carp (where Koi came from), have been breed in Persia and Asia (yes in India too), as a food source. These carp would eat the natural lake plant & insects and in such were part of a self sustaining way of life. 

 

Will discuss more next week. 

 

God bless,

Kobus Jooste said:

Sahib, I would like to stay in touch with you regarding a concept that I am working on.  The problems with good genetics in current Mozambique tilapia is worrysome, and I am working on an alternative concept.  I want to look at koi again in a business model from two angles.  One is simply buying good quality small koi from overseas and raising them here, and the other, longer term one is to get hold of quality broodstock and starting a hatchery / grow-out operation.  I will be bugging you and the other koi guys with questions soon I hope!

[chuck]

i haave been slinking around a lot of diferent websites in resent weeks just geting a feel for the other kinds of fish i could try. seems that most of the conversations of koi owners perpetualy revolves around finding a better (and more expensive) filters and wondering what is makeing there fish sick. i assume that the amount of food = the amount of waste on a pound to pound exaple between tilapia koi and goldfish. so my ? is this, some fish digest diferently than others, some seem to digest more completly than others. have heard that goldies put out more amonia than others or could it be that (tipical home fishtank) goldie owners dont clean there filters as much. so koi dont eat as much as tilapia (they swim slower=slower motablisum?) but is there poo "more nutrient loaded" contributing to "crapy" water? if so is that beter for a grower with a fish food budget?    sorry bout the spelling, i do my best. never went to school and am a litle dislexic, so typing goes realy slow. (pandora played 18 willie nelson songs in the time it took me to write this)

[Kobus Jooste]

No sweat on the spelling.  I'm not English and not a grammer Nazi.  I think koi does produce more waste per pound of food than tilapia, but cannot give you a direct answer as to where the differences lie.  In koi culture terms it normally equates to more water volume per fish than tilapia, but in aquaponics, it can potentially mean less fish required to run the same system.  Maintaining the water quality would be key to keeping the koi happy, but I lose as many koi as I do tilapia (very little) thus either I have backyard koi (likely) or I have decent water quality for koi aquaponics. 

clay hartwig said:

i haave been slinking around a lot of diferent websites in resent weeks just geting a feel for the other kinds of fish i could try. seems that most of the conversations of koi owners perpetualy revolves around finding a better (and more expensive) filters and wondering what is makeing there fish sick. i assume that the amount of food = the amount of waste on a pound to pound exaple between tilapia koi and goldfish. so my ? is this, some fish digest diferently than others, some seem to digest more completly than others. have heard that goldies put out more amonia than others or could it be that (tipical home fishtank) goldie owners dont clean there filters as much. so koi dont eat as much as tilapia (they swim slower=slower motablisum?) but is there poo "more nutrient loaded" contributing to "crapy" water? if so is that beter for a grower with a fish food budget?    sorry bout the spelling, i do my best. never went to school and am a litle dislexic, so typing goes realy slow. (pandora played 18 willie nelson songs in the time it took me to write this)

[Sahib Punjabi]

Namaste Clay,

 

In the many years that I have kept Koi & Goldfish, I have been very fortunate to have not lost fish due to filter problems or feed problems. I lost fish due to my stupidity and lack of attention (usually overfill via tap water and not reducing the chlorine level). Koi & Goldfish actually do not eat as much as Tilapia or Channel Catfish and yes, they do produce an abundance of waste...great for my Aquaponics gardening. Now I am not a chemist or have access to other tools that can tell you if their waste is superior to other fish...all I can say is, just look at the growth that my small research system has produced.

 

Given that I usually only eat fish once a week and do like to have a variety, I am not so overly concerned at breeding lots of Tilapia or Catfish. I love hand feeding the Koi & Goldfish and get a lot of peace sitting at the edge of some of my ponds and  watching them...after a while, they start to play with you :-)

 

God bless,   

[TCLynx]

Seems that fish like catfish and tilapia you get more fish for the amount of feed given.  Koi probably don't grow as fast and so more of the feed going into the system will be available to grow the plants and less gets used to grow fish weight.

 

So for the same budget of feed you will probably grow more veggies to eat but less fish.

 

Of course there are so many parameters involved that the whole situations is usually far more complex than that but if you don't want to eat the fish, then you will probably get more for your money from the Koi plus they can be rather interactive pets.

[Kobus Jooste]

I'll go hunt down the Food Conversion Ratios (FCR) for the two species and see if there is adequate info to make a comment.  The FCR gives you an indication of waste as it states how many pounds of food is needed to grow a pound of the fish.  It is feed quality dependent though, thus one cannot say tilapia has an FCR of 1.8 for all foods and koi 2.1 or something like that.  Tilapia can be anywhere between 1.8 and 1.3 on really good food if I remember correctly, perhaps a bit higher. I know little about koi FCR, and a quick scan of references on google that are available without the "science filter" on gives anything from better than tilapia to FCR over 3, depending on food.

 

It does look, though, that a koi is less efficient on typical foods than tilapia and that you will end up with more "poo per pound" of food than with tilapia.  Thus, if you are not aiming at eating the fish, and can get a good but affordable food, it should make logical sense to do a trial on this.

[Adebambo Aiyeola]

I have a question I want to find a true commercial business model with viable numbers to build a grant for a commercial plan for a greenhouse in georgia do you have any idea where i can start to get this information.

ColoradoAquaFarms said:

I raise both Koi and Tilapia, and by far Im more impressed with the Koi. The market is denver is good for Koi and if you are willing to ship them the National market is pretty good. 

 

In my opinion the only problem with Koi is there stocking density. They can not be stocked very densely without disease issues. I have two 1200 gallon tanks, one with Koi and the other with Tilapia, the Tilapia eat two to three times as much feed as the Koi due. This makes sense considering there are 4 times the amount of Tilapia than Koi. I was going to switch to all koi, but with my amount of needed daily feed to run my system I have to stick with Tilapia for now. When I expand I was thinking of going with much larger fish holding capacity so I can grow Koi and maybe striped bass and Sturgeon.

 

Also from previous posts, the Koi from Japan with paperwork are worth far more, and some buyers wont even look at your fish unless they are form Japan.

 

Aloha

[TCLynx]

There is a Friendlies commercial aquaponics training class taking place after the aquaponics association conference here in Florida.  They have a business section to their commercial training and that may be a good place to start if you can get down here to take the class.  Unfortunately there are not too many commercial aquaponics business models around to copy yet.  Another option would be to study the University of the Virgin Islands operation or to take a course from Nelson and Pade up in Wisconsin but I don't know if they have a business section or if it is just the aquaponics and controlled environment growing taught in their classes.

 

At the moment I don't know of any place where you can simply go download the business plans of aquaponics operations though.