This year we have been working on setting up our 55 gallon aquarium as a breeder tank to raise our own food. This page is intended to document our experiences in the hopes that it will help out anyone else who has a similar idea.
Provided are explanations for why we are doing something a certain way, facts about the animals in which we plan to raise, and mistakes made along the way.
After doing a lot of research I decided to raise Blue Tilapia, Australian Red Claw Lobsters, and Briggs Snails.
The Tilapia will be bred indoors over the winter months, then brought outside to be raised in stock tanks over the summer. In late summer/early fall we will harvest them and start the cycle all over again.
The Red Claw Lobster is a massive freshwater crayfish from Australia that gets up to a pound in one growing season (2lbs full grown) and tastes like a genuine lobster. We love lobster dishes but the expensive price means it is always passed up. Even in restaurants I hesitate to pay $30+ for a single dinner. Catching native crayfish is an option, but one I don't like. I feel they are being overfished in many areas and, in addition to that, they usually aren't large enough to make it worthwhile. Like the Tilapia, the Red Claws will be hatched indoors then brought out to wading pools over the summer until they are large enough to harvest.
The Briggs Snails are a four-fold experiment. They're supposed to increase the infusoria in your tank, which is good for baby fish (see the Briggs Snail article for more information about that), plus they clean up excess food that other fish might miss. What's more, Red Claw lobsters will happily devour baby snails, giving another natural food supply for them. Fourth, and quite possibly the most experimental, is raising them for escargot.
I have never had escargot. Online, people insist they taste like mushrooms, clams, scallops, and everything inbetween, although everyone who has had them agrees that they have an extremely mild taste and, when cooked right, are chewy like clams (and only rubbery when overcooked). Generally it is the sauce that makes them good, generally served in a butter garlic dish or a wine sauce. Briggs Snaills will grow to be the size of a golf ball (around 2.5-3" in diameter), which is more than large enough to be edible. If we decide we don't like escargot the snails will still earn their keep and the extras can be fed to our birds for extra protein and calcium.
I will also be raising brightly colored Platies and Swordtails. These are livebearers that can produce a lot of offspring in a very short time. They are meant to add a little more color to the tank (I have mostly reds and yellows to contrast with the silvers and blues) and to provide a natural food source for anyone fast enough to snatch up one of the fry.
This balance, along with plenty of live plants for the fish to hide in and eat (plus to help purify the water), will hopefully provide a healthy, natural environment to get the most out of the breeders, while also providing an asthetically pleasing aquarium.
With this we begin the experiment. If successful then at this time next year we will be feasting on fresh, healthy, organic fish and lobster.