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The problem I have with these setups is that at some point you're reliant on some kind of outside source of food. Instead of buying food for yourself, you buy f

The problem I have with these setups is that at some point you're reliant on some kind of outside source of food. Instead of buying food for yourself, you buy food for the fish and then harvest the food from your farm. But where does the fish food come from? You still need to go to shops and buy manufactured fish food. If there was a solution to the fish food bottleneck (which is essentially a protein bottleneck) I'd be more interested in something like this. Currently it just shifts the problem of sustainable food production somewhere else. Are there ways to sustainably create your own protein-rich fish food? Perhaps some kind of insect farm? But that just shifts the problem again. Maybe an insect trap which attracts wild insects from the environment?

ph0rque 10y ago
That's the longer term goal. One practical way to do it is to feed all your compost to black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), which self-harvest when it's time by crawling out of the container... into the fish pond. Here's an example of a BSFL composting bin: http://www.thebiopod.com/ http://www.thebiopod.com/
- ValleyOfTheMtns 10y ago
  That's excellent. Thanks for the info. Pretty impressive that you can regain protein content from vegetable matter like that. I wonder if it's all sustainable over a long time period or if it requires some kind of supplements to sustain the system.
  - sgc 10y ago
    there will always be a nutrient issue, as with any field you pull matter out of, but the volume is minimal compared to fertilizing an entire field. you can make protein chains but not minerals.
    - ph0rque 10y ago
      Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have any type of closed loop, you'll be adding nutrients by default. For example, if you have the food waste -> BSFL -> fish -> plants -> harvest loop, you'll be adding food waste from outside the loop, which will have the nutrients you need. If you continue consuming bananas, banana peels will be an excellent source of magnesium and potassium that will make its way into the plants through the loop mentioned above.
SixSigma 10y ago
Pacu fish will live partly on table scraps, so there's that.

ph0rque 10y ago

That's the longer term goal. One practical way to do it is to feed all your compost to black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), which self-harvest when it's time by crawling out of the container... into the fish pond. Here's an example of a BSFL composting bin: http://www.thebiopod.com/ http://www.thebiopod.com/

ValleyOfTheMtns 10y ago
That's excellent. Thanks for the info. Pretty impressive that you can regain protein content from vegetable matter like that. I wonder if it's all sustainable over a long time period or if it requires some kind of supplements to sustain the system.
- sgc 10y ago
  there will always be a nutrient issue, as with any field you pull matter out of, but the volume is minimal compared to fertilizing an entire field. you can make protein chains but not minerals.
  - ph0rque 10y ago
    Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have any type of closed loop, you'll be adding nutrients by default. For example, if you have the food waste -> BSFL -> fish -> plants -> harvest loop, you'll be adding food waste from outside the loop, which will have the nutrients you need. If you continue consuming bananas, banana peels will be an excellent source of magnesium and potassium that will make its way into the plants through the loop mentioned above.

SixSigma 10y ago

Pacu fish will live partly on table scraps, so there's that.