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View Full Version : Cheap fish for beginner in Scandinavia



Nikenik
04-23-2013, 08:18 AM
Are about to start my first aquaponic system, have read some books and watched a lot of youtube and dvd's.

But most of the information is about keeping (growing?) fish in Australia or America. I live in Sweden where e.g Tilapia is an exotic fish no one has heard of...

What type of fish do you recommend for my system?

The system will be indoors in my apartment and will be about 300-400 liters, kind of like this one:
http://theaquaponicsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/aquaponics_022-sm-300x226.jpg
I will focus on growing vegetables and would like the fish to be easy to keep and cheap to feed. Either with worms from my worm bin or with food scraps like bread, potato, peas...

The thing is I am currently unemployed and can't really afford going to the pet store and buying a bunch of gold fish and certainly not koi carp... :|

By the way, how many gold fish would you need to get a good yield in a system like the one in the picture?

One fish that is very common, and free, here where I live is the "European Perch" ("Abborre" in Swedish). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_perch
I've read about some people keeping them in their aquarium's but they seem to be very picky about what they eat and doesn't like temperature's over 20 degrees Celsius.

Would feel bad if I just went out and netted some and killed them in just a few days because I didn't know any better... :roll:

keith_r
04-23-2013, 11:18 AM
they look similar to our yellow perch (and can in fact interbreed with them)
if you can get them on pellets they'd be fine for your system.. with a system of that size though, i'd only have 4 or 5

ColdWeatherAquapon
05-15-2014, 10:04 AM
Where you live, you're unlikely to see water temperatures over 20C. Perch would work well, though they don't grow as fast as some others. Trout would work well for you also. I grow them here in Wisconsin.

Probably the best advice, however, is to find and visit your local hatchery. Ask them what they'd recommend, and what their prices are. Consider buying 7-8" fish. They're not that expensive and you will grow them out much faster.