Tilapia growing vegetables? How could this be? Does this mean that tilapia are putting on their straw hats and overalls, driving tractors, planting seeds and pulling weeds? As fun as that sounds, it is actually something quite different. It is a process called aquaponics and it is revolutionizing the way many people are growing food.
Tilapia are well known for their food value and for being a "non fishy" fish. This fish is not only gaining in popularity as a seafood dish, what many people don't know is that tilapia are also being used for growing vegetables.
Aquaponics is a hybridization of aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaculture is a term used for farming fish. Hydroponics is a way to grow plants in water instead of using soil. Both of these methods have been used for a long time and both can be very productive.
Aquaponics combines the two and creates a symbiotic relationship between the fish and the plants. The fish produce nutrients for the plants, and the plants clean the water for the fish. This eliminates the need to add fertilizer to the hydroponic system. The fish wastes are converted by bacteria into nutrients that the plants can use. The plants remove these wastes from the water, which provides clean water for the fish.
This creates a system where there is no need to add fertilizer, which can otherwise be expensive, a constant chore, and does not fit well with organic gardening. A major problem with aquaculture is keeping the water clean. The buildup of fish wastes need to be flushed from the system, usually by constantly replacing water. This not only uses a lot of water, it also creates a lot of polluted water to dispose of into the environment.
Aquaponics eliminates these problems while retaining all the advantages of both hydroponics and aquaculture. It can produce vegetables with one tenth the water as traditional gardening, in much less space, all without chemical fertilizers.
Many types of fish are used with this type of system including trout and catfish, but tilapia are the probably the most common. These fish are very hardy, will eat just about any type of food, and are very productive.
This type of system can be done on a large commercial scale, but may be becoming more common as a small back yard hobby scale. This is a great hobby that can be kept very simple and inexpensive or can be quite complex, depending how deep into it you want to get.
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