AQUACULTURE
From page 16
interaction with aerobic
bacteria attached to the freefloating filter media.
For easy transport all of this,
including air pumps, water
circulating pumps, thermometer, etc, is packed into the
smaller tank, which is packed
in turn into the larger tank
like a Russian doll.
A newly developed system
FarmInABox Pro does away
with the rigid tanks, instead
incorporating the filters as
stitched-in chambers in the
side of the main tank. And in
a further simplification to
reduce transport costs to the
bone, thismakes the package
Plastic filter media. The dark ones
are coated with aerobic bacteria
even smaller and lighter by
omitting any plastic water
pipe, the buyer being
expected to find this easilysourced, cheap and easilyworked material at his
suppliers.
In this way, Farminabox can
be couriered anywhere
around the country at
minimal cost, and more
importantly air- or
roadfreighted to buyers
throughout Africa, where
tilapia farming is becoming
big business, says Fincham.
The system can be used for
any stage of the fish-growing
process, from hatching fry to
producing fingerlings to
growing out table-ready fish,
the only differences being in
stocking levels, feeding and
management techniques.
Nile tilapia grow best in water
o
at a temperature of 27-29 C
so, in Gauteng at least, fish
farming takes place most
effectively under cover,
typically in
a greenhouse.
A standard
30m
greenhouse
can hold
fourteen
10 000 litre
tanks and
their
Fincham lifts the lid off a Farminabox filter
associated
points out that tilapia is
filters. Depending on how the becoming more popular
farmer wishes to use them
among South African
this is sufficient to produce as consumers and restaurant
much as 20 tons of saleable
goers, not least as it compares
fish per year (buying in
very favourably in price with
fingerlings from a hatchery for more traditional, but now
each batch, rather than
harder to source, whitefish
producing one's own fry).
species such as kingklip, sole
But, says Fincham, the beauty and kabeljou.
of the Farminabox system is
He adds that the more value
that a smaller producer, such one is prepared to add to
as a smallholder, could have
one's catch, ie by way of
only one tank, sufficient to
filletting, smoking or
keep his family supplied with otherwise working the fish,
fish, with enough over to sell
the more revenue one can
to more than cover the cost of expect.
the enterprise. Fincham
18
www.sasmallholder.co.za
Continued on page 20