Tilapia

[woodyz]

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Not as good for you as Salmon, but............

I get 90 1# filets every 2 1/2 months for free and when I eat it I am not eating beef or pork and its a break from chicken so I will keep eating it.

As I said our landscape guy does the aquaculture thing with great success in three big greenhouses. My effort on a much smaller scale, started at the same time (2 springs ago or so now, or maybe 3) failed and I have not tried again but his family doesn't like to eat it much so I get almost all he raises free. Its protein, I like it and I can take vitamins. I still eat fresh salmon a couple times a month, more if you count the cans of it I crave once in a while.

I have tried raising a few in our runoff storage barrels but it only support 5 or 6 fish in each barrel, every 3 months and only in the cooler months. So I have taken to throwing a few gold fish in each barrel to eat mosquitos and make some fish poo in the hot months. Hard to get motivated when I get about 300 fillets a year for free.

[garret]

i have tried tilapia and i must say i was not impressed, i am not a huge fan of fish (seafood yes but not fish) now if i could do the same with flatheads i would be a happy man

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusky_Flathead

[woodyz]

You can do flatheads!

But I would recommend channel cat over flatheads.

But you can only do 1 or 2 in a 55 gallon barrel and it takes 4-6 months.

I would like to do a big snapping turtle in each barrel, I think you could, I don't know how long it would take. We don't have them here in SC but in KS and TX we would fish just for them and we used to drive the back roads after a really heavy rain because they would be pushed into the ditches by the rain.

I have had some that wouldn't fit in a 55 gal barrel.

[garret]

mmmm never tried turtle, i have heard it is very tasty though

[woodyz]

My opinion the snapping turtle is a delicacy for flavor.

You have to flush the mud out of the wild ones in a tub of fresh water for several days and unless you are slow cooking you would do to pressure cook the meat first then use it fried/baked/broiled/however. But for flavor I love it.

Also noticed the flathead picture you link and my flathead are not the same fish.