A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Fish for NW Aquaponics

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

Permalink Reply by Linda Logan on July 19, 2015 at 8:09pm

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

Permalink Reply by Jeff Guykema on July 20, 2015 at 12:13am

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

Permalink Reply by Rick Stillwagon on July 20, 2015 at 8:04am

Yellow Perch is another good species that is available everywhere.

Permalink Reply by Laurence Hutchinson on July 20, 2015 at 9:42am

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

Permalink Reply by Carla&Dave on July 20, 2015 at 10:44am

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...

Permalink Reply by Laurence Hutchinson on July 20, 2015 at 10:57am

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

Permalink Reply by Jeff Guykema on July 21, 2015 at 8:07am

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?

Permalink Reply by Linda Logan on July 22, 2015 at 9:44am

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.

Permalink Reply by Linda Logan on July 25, 2015 at 8:32am

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.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Guykema on July 25, 2015 at 4:01pm

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.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Guykema on August 9, 2015 at 2:23pm

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!

Permalink Reply by James D Eiselstein on March 11, 2016 at 12:04am

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