A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

How 'Organic' Can We Get?

Hello Everyone,

First of all, great forum. Many of my questions have been answered after many hours of surfing in here (the water is nice by the way) I still have some fish questions.

Recently I spoke with a local hatchery owner and this particular guy is very much against aquaponics. After speaking with him for about 45 minutes on the phone, I realized that he was speaking about outdated aquaponics tech. But he raised an interesting question that hadn't dawned on me.

Is there a fish food that is available that we can feed our omnivorous fish that is 'organic' or 'natural'? This man's argument was that the word 'natural' in this sense is incorrect because there is no way to raise fish in a tank and expect anything natural. In other words, you have to feed them commercial fish food and you can never trace the origins of that fish food - because the food contains fish, and you have no way of knowing where those fish came from and what they ate.

I have tried to find my answer in this forum, however many of the threads skewed off from the initial question.

I am working on a project trying to prove that this can be a very useful way to provide a healthy and sustainable food source - without becoming 'just an expensive hobby'.

But from my chair and computer here - there is no way to feed fish - say bluegill - a natural diet without supplements. My proposed system will be in my basement, so flies are out of the question. I might be able to raise crickets. I have lots of red worms too.

Where is the middle ground? Part natural, the best commercially available fish meal without making this an expensive hobby.

Thoughts?

Scott

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Permalink Reply by George on July 5, 2012 at 8:50am

Check the SHOP tab on this site. I use the food - my fish like it and are growing well, and the plants too. You can read about in the Organic/Natural Feed group. My fish eat organic, all natural food and not many fish in the wild enjoy such good water quality. Their food is supplemented by Soldier Fly Larvae and misc bug, slugs and worms but they primarily eat the organic fish food.