Keeping perch

[SecretPrepper]

Does anyone have experience keeping perch fish?
I am close to being ready to introduce fish into an aquaponics setup.
I was originally going to go Winn carp but my other half would not like the taste so much.

I am looking for a perch supplier at the moment so if anyone has experience keeping the fish that would be great.

[Scythe13]

I'm going to spanner the works, not properly answer the question, but hopefully add a new dimention to the aquaponic system.

Have you considered Telapia? They thrive on high density and breed pretty quickly. So you can get more fish in the area and the more there are, the better they seem to do.

[TOF]

The problem with Tilapia, Scythe is they are a tropical fish and require warmer water temps than we can provide without heat. And they taste Blardy awful! Perch is pretty good, it has nice firm flesh and doesn't take on that muddy flavour quite as readily as a lot of other freshwater species do.

[Tartar Horde]

I agree with you TOF, Perch tastes fantastic, reminds me a bit like Bream or Snapper. I've never seen it for sale though, unlike Roach & Carp etc. I've often thought about some of the Catfish species that come from North America that are supposed to taste ok like Channel Catfish in Canada.

[bigpaul]

what about keeping crayfish?

[Tartar Horde]

Now that's a great idea BP they taste excellent and must be easier to keep than fish?
Jambalaya-Crawfish pie-fillet Gumbo as the song goes. With your beard and some Dungarees you could be Cajun lol.

[bigpaul]

(3 June 2014, 15:27)Tartar Horde Wrote: Now that's a great idea BP they taste excellent and must be easier to keep than fish?
Jambalaya-Crawfish pie-fillet Gumbo as the song goes. With your beard and some Dungarees you could be Cajun lol.

who knows? my (birth) father was an American!! I just thought crayfish are probably a bit tastier(to eat) than fish.

[SecretPrepper]

Hey thanks for the replies.
i have never eaten crayfish and know nothing about them
I had considered talapia but the cost to heat was too much . Perch and carp are fine unheated but carp is really dificult sounding to prepare with the ribs and other parts that can inpare the flavor.

[bigpaul]

American crayfish have been taking over our rivers for ages and outbreeding the native ones, if you catch one (by accident?) you are not supposed to put it back, would it be better than killing it to put it in a pond of our own and breed them on as a resourse? just thinking out loud.

[TOF]

Crayfish taste and have a texture sort of between Prawns and Lobster. They're really nice and if you have them in your local river, you have a regular free supply!
Keeping Crayfish in a passive Aquaponics system is on my to do list probablyfor next year, now. I want to build an energy free system. I'd be interested how you're setting yours up SP.