Essential Equipment for Commercial Aquaculture Activities
MINUMIM EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL AQUACULTURE
Equipment OR tools of the trade
Also excellent for the backyard people, aquaponics etc.
There is the bare minimum and there is the essential.
The bare minimum means you don't really know what is going on in your water and with your fish.
The essential means you can know what's going on in your water and with your fish.
There are some water quality measurements that you need to know, and some that you MUST know if you are a commercial fish farmer.
(And you want to succeed.)
Just having the equipment is not enough.
You MUST use it. and . . .
you must keep records.
Records are essential.
They will help you improve what you are doing . . .
Which is . . . make some profit !
pH and oxygen are the first things you should always know.
In a pond the pH gives you some idea what is going on with the CO2 of the pond.
In a RAS it helps you understand how critical the ammonia might be.
See these pages to understand why I say this.
The essential "tools" are a pH meter and an oxygen meter.
Below reliable inexpensive pH meter - click to go to their website
Below reliable quality oxygen meters - click to go to their website
The next piece of essential equipment is a salt refractometer
If you are handling live fish, you need this.
Below is a classic refractometer available online from au$28.00 to hundreds of dollars.
The one below is exactly what I use.
The expensive ones are, as near as I can tell, exactly the same just overpriced.
They range in price a lot so look carefully.
The main thing you are looking for is a sturdy case, as seen below, and a clear view as also seen below.
Right click on the picture and open in a new tab to see full size image.
(On a phone, long tap and zoom.)
When fish are harvested or during premarket purging the fish should be in water with a salt content between 2 to 5 PPT.
Tip. In the picture below note that the person looking in the instrument is not holding the instrument so the water will not run out of the viewing stage.
You will soon work this out when you start using one of these.
Microscope
Microscopes are also essential to help identify and treat pathogens.
Be sure to understand what type you need.
In most cases you can send a sample of your fish to a lab and have them identify any disease your fish may have, but this takes time.
Time is critical because the longer it takes to start dealing with a disease, the stronger the grip of the disease will have on you fish.
It is vital that the operator of a farm can quickly identify an issue, and start treatment.
Obviously, for a hatchery is is absolutely essential so you can examine oocytes.
Alarms
An essential piece of equipment is an alarm to tell you your fish will all die soon unless you act immediately !
There are many things that you can have an alarm for but oxygen is the essential one.
Without oxygen your fish are about to die.
All you need to know is when the air stops flowing to your fish tanks.
Not as urgent in a pond.
Everything in a pond moves slower and with good records you will know well in advance if your oxygen will become dangerously low.
In a tank, with a lot of fish, it's an urgent situation.
Easily fixed with a simple, cheap air switch, a battery, and a siren or a phone notification.
And see below for the simple switch.
Air tubing in and 12 volt wires to siren. (Just a car battery.)
Simple siren used on car alarms and security systems
No alarm - you get this -
OTHER SPECIES
Click the picture for video - Low altitude passes over Barcoo River - with surprise ending
