You’re listening to Fish Grow Plants—A podcast all about practicing and sharing the love of aquaponics; hosted by Logan Schoolcraft.
Hello, and welcome to Fish Grow Plants! In today’s episode we’re talking about love—the love of aquaponic fish food ideas.
So, if you’ve made your own fish food, you should probably be doing this episode, not me.
But, not to be discouraged, I listened to a presentation the other day about a subject related to fish food. The concept was not totally new to me, but it did spark a bit of a new interest and got me thinking about options, concepts, and ideas!
I love it when ideas start to hit me—it’s those “ah-ha” moments and picturing the future of what could be. The potential is out there, and it’s up to us to make it real!
So, what did I listen to?
Well, it had nothing directly to do with aquaponics at all. Actually, it was mostly about bugs.
Yes, insects. Specifically, how they can be raised for food and feed.
Bingo!
Did you hear that word, “feed”? Yes, that’s the trigger right there.
Feed. This talk was more big picture with insects as food and feed, but I opened this episode saying it would be about fish food, or to say it differently, feed for fish!
The main take-away for me about this topic was that insects are pretty well suited to be food for fish. I mean, fish already eat insects anyway, so why not figure out a mix they really love?!
As many moths that fall into my system, I figure my fish already love a good moth soup, so they would probably be open to another bug focused entre.
The beauty of the system being proposed was that it would be to create bug feed from waste streams such as food scraps, compost, and other (mostly) plant-based products that have no other value. It was pretty cool. They were trying to optimize the waste for consumption before it rotted or was no value to the bugs.
One of their ideas was a large solar dryer that would essentially dry, or dehydrate, the waste food until it was stable as a feed. My assumption is that that dry mix will be added to other food sources to achieve a mix that grows each insect the best.
If you’d like to know more about the people involved in this process, at least the one I heard about, I’ve got links on the fishgrowplants.com website for you.
https://environment.arizona.edu/person/goggy-davidowitz
https://techlaunch.arizona.edu/i2/hexafeast.html
(the hexafeast llc website was not working at the time of this episode, so I’m not sure what the status is…)
And, if you want to know more about this awesome cool idea, I’ve listed a few links from the FAO to see if you imagination and ingenuity will get ramped up from their information!
http://www.fao.org/edible-insects/en/
http://www.fao.org/edible-insects/84629/en/
http://www.fao.org/3/i3253e/i3253e00.htm
But to toss it back to you, what can you think of, do, or apply from just what you learned right now?
Well, since this is a one-way conversation, I can only guess at what you’d say, so I’ll share with you some of what came into my brain…
I wondered if it was possible to do this at home. You know, a DIY kit that would turn your food scraps, yard waste, and other random organic stuff into ideal insect food.
I also wondered how many insects I have around the house in general that could be caught and fed to my fish (I already mentioned the moths, but are there others I’ve not been seeing and thinking about?)
And for one more thought—I wondered what other options could provide a path to fish food—could I grow it, build it, create it, harvest it myself? Could part of my aquaponic system provide food for the fish directly, or indirectly? (Kind of like farmers a century ago had to do for all their animals.)
Hmmmm….. Lots to think about here. But I like that!
I hope this episode has been a mind-opening experience for you and your idea bank filled at least partially up with new concepts. And if you’d like to know more, don’t forget to check out the direct links on my website.
So with that, have a wonderful day and keep your radar open for new and exciting ways of providing your fish food—with six legs or not!
Happy aquaponicing!
QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK:
Questions! Let me have them! Do you need clarification, more information, or maybe you just have a tangent thought—send all your thoughts my way. See the website fishgrowplants.com for episode details, or just fire off an email to [email protected] and I’ll get back to you.
THANK YOU’S/GRATITUDE:
So, was this episode good, bad, ugly, or other? Let me know! Comment, email, smoke-signals it doesn’t matter! I love to hear from you. Your feedback is immense, and I am always grateful for it. Likewise, thank you for taking the time to listen and share your thoughts. Have a wonderful day.
This has been another episode of Fish Grow Plants—the podcast all about practicing and sharing the love of aquaponics; hosted by Logan Schoolcraft.
https://fishgrowplants.libsyn.com/love-aquaponic-fish-food-ideas