hey i found out that i can do an aquaria related project for aggriculture class. so me and my friend are going to do one. what would be a good project
FFA aquaculture project
- Thread starter austinpetemo
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Are you restricted to tanks, or can you get access to a pond, livestock tanks, or other larger containers?
I think a good project would be to compare growth rates between two similar food species kept under similar conditions; for example, two species of tilapia, or two catfish. I would be very interested to see the differences in growth rates between the standard farmed freshwater "prawn" Macrobrachium rosenbergii and one or more of your Texas native macros, like M. carcinus or M. acanthurus.
I think a good project would be to compare growth rates between two similar food species kept under similar conditions; for example, two species of tilapia, or two catfish. I would be very interested to see the differences in growth rates between the standard farmed freshwater "prawn" Macrobrachium rosenbergii and one or more of your Texas native macros, like M. carcinus or M. acanthurus.
Go the next step and look into Aquaponics. It is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. I'm sure you could dazzle your teacher with it.
Tilapia and tomatoes are the easiest to do together. You could also do herbs like rosemary or sweet basil.
Prawns are very unforgiving in regard to water quality whereas tilapia are the most forgiving.
Some resources:
http://www.aquaponics.com/
http://www.aquaculturemag.com/
http://www.aquaticeco.com
http://www.til-tech.com (Friend's tilapia farm)
Tilapia and tomatoes are the easiest to do together. You could also do herbs like rosemary or sweet basil.
Prawns are very unforgiving in regard to water quality whereas tilapia are the most forgiving.
Some resources:
http://www.aquaponics.com/
http://www.aquaculturemag.com/
http://www.aquaticeco.com
http://www.til-tech.com (Friend's tilapia farm)
ok me and my friend want to use tanks. all i have access to is an almost empty pond. no catfish. maybe some perch and a bass but nothing with them. i would perfer aquariums
Buy gold fish, they are cheap. I bred and raised guppies for mine. I used the ones I didn't like for feeder fish, and the ones I did like, I kept for more breeding/selling. Made a small fortune off of it to with 4 tanks being used for breeding. Aquaponics is awesome, but unless you have all the parts, gets expensive quickly.
What time frame do you have to work with? FOr example some ideas may be great if you have 2,3,6 months to monitor it but do you no good if you have a 2 week window to come up with data
Do you have the contest description/rules handy? That would help a lot.
I assume because it's FFA you would be mainly interested in raising some kind of commercially valuable species. You would also want to produce some new information, not just "I followed these directions and they worked".
Raising a pet trade fish is great, but it would only be interesting if you were A) breeding a species which had not been bred before; B) using a new technique to breed or raise some species; or C) doing comparisons of different techniques or productivity of different species.
Aquaponics is an awesome idea. Some other good ones might be:
Comparison of the effectiveness of different plants or algae in filtering polluted water.
Growth rates and fecundity of a valuable fish species on different diets (maybe pellets vs. live food, for example).
Effectiveness of alternative treatments for a food fish disease.
Also, don't feel like you have to limit your budget to what you can scrape up on your own or what your parents are willing to spare. Talk to local businesses and agencies, especially those involved in the aquarium/aquaculture/agriculture/water treatment areas. You may find someone willing to sponsor you; it can't hurt to ask, anyways.
I assume because it's FFA you would be mainly interested in raising some kind of commercially valuable species. You would also want to produce some new information, not just "I followed these directions and they worked".
Raising a pet trade fish is great, but it would only be interesting if you were A) breeding a species which had not been bred before; B) using a new technique to breed or raise some species; or C) doing comparisons of different techniques or productivity of different species.
Aquaponics is an awesome idea. Some other good ones might be:
Comparison of the effectiveness of different plants or algae in filtering polluted water.
Growth rates and fecundity of a valuable fish species on different diets (maybe pellets vs. live food, for example).
Effectiveness of alternative treatments for a food fish disease.
Also, don't feel like you have to limit your budget to what you can scrape up on your own or what your parents are willing to spare. Talk to local businesses and agencies, especially those involved in the aquarium/aquaculture/agriculture/water treatment areas. You may find someone willing to sponsor you; it can't hurt to ask, anyways.
