How You Could Easily Raise Fish Indoors for Food & Profit

by Blogger | Apr 4, 2015 | Blog | 21 comments

Many of us like raising fish at home as pets, but have you thought about raising fish for food and profit? This is a great way to get your animal proteins, eat fresh, while you make some money; it doesn’t get much easier than this.

It’s possible for an average family to grow all their food at home and eat locally, and also make some extra cash. You could raise fish, not only in your backyard pond but you could also raise a number of fish indoors in aquariums or fish tanks. This article will show you simple ways to raise fish at home, wherever you have some additional space.

Raising fish indoors for profit

The idea of raising fish indoors for profit is not a new concept. Indoor aquaculture is gaining popularity worldwide. Why? Because people want to eat locally grown food. More and more consumers today are conscious about where and how their food was grown. People are tired of irresponsible farming practices, and want to support farming that does no harm to the environment.

Raising your own fish for food is easy, convenient, and doesn’t impact the environment as much as large scale aquaculture or wild harvesting. And, the best thing about raising fish indoors is that you could be eating fresh, right from your aquarium. Now, you couldn’t get fish any fresher than that!

Besides feeding your family with home grown fish, you could also take it a step further and start your own indoor fish farm, and start selling your fish for a profit. I am sure your friends and family would enjoy eating fresh homegrown fish from your farm, just as much as you would enjoy them yourself.

How to get started

To start your indoor fish farm, you will need some space indoors. Decide what size fish tanks will fit in your space and what type of fish you want.

Types of fish you could raise indoors

You have a wide variety to choose from. The types of fish you can raise in your tank will depend on your tank size and available space you have. It also depends on the demand for fish and price that you can sell them at.

The top 6 species of fish for indoor aquaculture

Tilapia
Trout
Carp
Catfish
Koi
Largemouth Bass

When choosing your fish, consider their feed to growth ratio. Some of the fish like tilapia and catfish can grow very fast, have great feed to fish ratio, and are resilient and resistant to common parasites. Some types of fish like the bass may be difficult to feed because they tend to eat other smaller fish. Also keep in mind that buying some type of fry (baby fish) may be cheaper, so keep the cost of fish and their feed in mind when purchasing them.

What you will need

You will need to get a good size fish tank or aquarium. It could be any type of container. You don’t want to overcrowd your fish in your tank or buy too much equipment at first. A tub sized tank is a good starting point for indoor fish farming.

You will need to be able to control your room temperature and light. You will need an air pump to oxygenate your water. Additionally plants can be good to keep a natural environment and a steady supply of oxygen in your fish tank. Keep in mind some fish will eat algae and other plants from your fish tank. You will also need to filter your water to keep it clean.

Aquaponic system

Another sustainable method of indoor fish farming is to build an aquaponic system, where you grow your plants and fish together. You are able to use water from your fish tank to feed your plants. The water can be circulated through the plants to filter it out. This system can double your profit because you are growing multiple crops at the same time. It saves you space, time, and energy, reduces waste, and gives you more profit.

Get fries or fingerlings to start your farm, but remember that fries will take longer to grow into adults and so, it will also take longer for them to produce adequate nitrate levels for your plants to absorb. Fingerlings can grow faster and produce more waste which your plants will feed on, but they can be a bit more expensive.

Harvesting & marketing

Monitor and watch your fish grow into marketable size. Pick the right size fish for selling. You have worked hard to raise your fish in a sustainable manner, so you need to get the word out. Focus on home raised organic methods, when marketing your fish.

You could easily use some free methods of marketing, such as road corner signs, advertisements on your local grocery store bulletin boards, or using social media platforms. Be sure to research the rules and regulations in your region regarding food safety and sales.

Hope you found these tips helpful. There is nothing really complicated about starting a home-based fish farm, indoors or outdoors. Want to learn more about aquaponic system? We can help. Please contact our office at 303-495-3705 or Click Here to book a meeting with us.

We’d really appreciate your comments on this blog. Please leave your comments below in the comment box below or visit our Facebook page to leave your comments. Thanks for visiting us, see you on our next blog!

Source: WorldWide Aquaculture

21 Comments

James. M on May 23, 2015 at 4:19 am

Thanks for your encouragement, I hope it will do good for me in Uganda-East Africa despite of the high temperatures of up to 27 deg C.

God bless You.
- kamil on March 26, 2016 at 1:06 pm
  
  Hi i want to start fish farming how much seed of cat fish i need per accer.. and how can i feed them i have 20 accer pound thanks..
  - Content Provider on May 2, 2016 at 10:46 am
    
    Hi Kamil,
    
    Thanks for the query. We will contact you soon.
moses maphakisa on November 10, 2015 at 5:21 am

where to buy fish and for starters how many should i buy
- Content Provider on November 16, 2015 at 3:45 am
  
  Check in a hatchery or pet store near you. The number would depend on what size fish tank or pond you have. You need enough space for them to grow without overcrowding them.
Ifeanyi on January 26, 2016 at 4:27 am

Thank you very much for the information. Very instructive. I want to start indoor pond. Currently, I supply smoked fish to hotels and churches and intend to start rearing my own fish. Please are you on whatsapp or bbm? My whatsapp number is +2348123053057.
Ifeanyi writing from lagos, Nigeria.
- Content Provider on February 16, 2016 at 4:50 pm
  
  Hi Ifeanyi,
  
  Thank you very much for your message. If you’d like we can meet over Skype and talk about your project.
  
  Thanks.
  - Jesus Avina on December 24, 2016 at 1:48 pm
    
    Hello,
    
    I am very interested in trying this and I have a few questions. Please send me an email.
    
    javina1989@gmail.com
    - Areeb on December 30, 2016 at 12:29 pm
      
      Avina,
      
      Here are several things we can do for you. First, we are going to make you a FREE member of our site where we teach courses and have live webinars about all kinds of aquaculture and agriculture. That site is called http://www.eatcommunity.com and you will get an email with login instructions.
      Second, one of our staff will contact you and see about scheduling a brief FREE call or skype (for outside US) conversation. He will coordinate the timing for us.
      Finally, on the http://www.eatcommunity.com site there is a questionnaire you should fill out to tell us a little about your aquaculture interests and needs. Please fill that out.
      Areeb
Irene Baldwin on April 23, 2016 at 10:52 am

Great info, aquaponics sounds marvelous 🙂 !
Thanks so much 🙂 !
I’m now on my way to your site and fb page 🙂 …
-Irene B
- Content Provider on April 28, 2016 at 11:09 am
  
  Thanks for the kind words, please tell your friends about us
M on May 6, 2016 at 4:04 am

WHAT IS THE RANGE FOR THE ROOM TEMPERATURE OF THE SALMON FARM
- Content Provider on May 9, 2016 at 9:33 am
  
  Hi M,
  
  Salmon thrives in cold temperature below 59 degrees. For more information, p-lease Call: 303-495-3705. We’ll be happy to hold a meeting with you and talk about salmon farming.
  
  Thanks.
Rodd on May 28, 2016 at 2:45 pm

Hi i was thinking about having salmon i noticed they wern’t on the list.Are they not easly cared for
- Hira on October 10, 2016 at 11:24 am
  
  Thanks for your comment! I can tell you are dedicated to aquaculture. I’m not the expert, but will pass your question along to Dr. Wayne Dorband. We have a very cool program that is free right now called the Ecolonomic Action Team (EAT) where we teach people how to “Make Money Making the Planet Better”. You can join that coaching/teaching/mentoring/networking program by going to ceed.mykajabi.com.
  
  The WWA Team
mamdouh sadek on January 26, 2017 at 8:05 am

very simple . . very easy . . encouraging
thank you
mamdouh
cairo, egypt
Mohammed Tareq on April 15, 2017 at 3:45 am

Good to learn the process, if we want to produce Cat Fish then how much surface area required for 750 kg saleable fish/month and how much fingerlings required for that production and at the same time how many days will be required to get desired result.
Christa Mason on September 30, 2017 at 9:55 pm

Just found this site and am tickled to see your 303 area code (same as mine). Love the concept of sustainable farming at home. We have what used to be a small bathroom decked out with an empty fish tank we were planning to fill one day and I wondered if we could raise fish to eat…. It will take a bit of time, so probably next summer, but I sure hope we can manage it! When I have more time and money, I’ll check out your services. Thanks for the initiative! C
Anjan Chakraborty on May 14, 2020 at 12:53 am

Well said, what I was looking for I have got from this blog.Just planning to do this to get rid from marketed fish that cultivated in a disputed way
Carmon on July 12, 2020 at 8:23 am

What about smaller fish like sardines?
BoMlet on June 12, 2021 at 12:36 pm

Hello,
I just wanted to let you know that I used the information in your very informative article for my own blog post “Zelf eten verbouwen zonder tuin” (Growing your own food without a garden), to be found at:
https://4tbom.nl/zelf-eten-verbouwen-zonder-tuin/ (Dutch)
Naturally, I added a link to this article in my source list.

Kind regards,
BoMlet