Party in my fish tank.

[15mules]

Yes, That is correct, you replace the fish with the gators. I know for those not from Louisiana raising alligators, seems like a novel idea, but the fact is there have been people raising alligators for their meat and for their skins as a business for a long time. This is only combining the two together. The problem with alligator farms have always been the fluctuation for the price of the skins, this is really where the money is in them. The produce from the aquaponics, would hopefully help stabilize the income in years when the skins were not so high.
Here is the concept. locate your AP business close to a animal processing factory of some kind, (chicken farm, beef, pork processing plant, etc. ) buy the waste meat products, fairly cheap to feed to the gators, and hook the gator tank up to your AP system, just like you would a fish tank.
Now for the hobby AP gardener, just buy some small gators and when they get to big to handle turn them lose and get some more. The game and fish would probably welcome this as in the wild the alligator survival rate for baby alligators is pretty small.

[keith_r]

i'd probably avoid gators in aquaculture.. pretty dirty critters, and sending that kind of waste through an ap system could pass salmonella on to you or your family....
for a backyarder to "grow and release" any kind of game into the wild is completely irresponsible..
releasing a gator that is not afraid of people is just plain nuts..
that's a problem with all kinds of things that are considered "invasive species" - people get tired of the exotic pet they bought and think it's ok to release it..... big head carp have the capability to destroy whole ecosystems... snakehead's are another...

[15mules]

Kieth,
Alligators cannot pass any more disease on than a fish could, they are both cold blooded animals. You would need to cook the foods you were feeding them to insure you were not getting any thing in that way, but that is the only difference, but it also is a cheap food source. Alligators in Louisiana are not an invasive species and every year the La. game and fish department personnel go out into the marsh and raid as many gator mounds as they can to bring the eggs into captivity to hatch and raise to a point they can be re-released. This is how they have managed to get the gator numbers back up in the southern states.
Look this is a simple discussion, in most instances to simply pass time, but it is a very viable system, probably not right for the average backyard AP person, with no experience dealing with alligators. What I will say is in the right environment, (southern states) where alligators are legal, and to someone familiar with their handling, this could be a beneficial setup. I would not be surprised if on a commercial scale you could not develop a partnership with the G&F to accept hatchlings, use them to a certain size, at which time they could come get them and return them to the wild, and provide you more hatchlings.
Concerning invasive species, I certainly would not advocate putting gators in your system in Ohio then turning them lose there where they are not native, although they would most certainly die the first winter, but I do agree with you on the invasive species problem.