Aquaponics/St. Croix Trip

The aquaponics course was on St. Croix - the island Jeff and I almost (and thankfully didn't) moved to. This is the first time I had been "off-island" in 2 1/2 years and I was ready for a short change of routine. I stayed at the dorm and was fortunate to not have a roommate and to have a room that had screened windows on both ends for ventilation. Because of that I could turn the fan off at night and still have a little breeze! I didn't rent a car since I figured it would just sit there from 9-5. I planned to join other people in taxis which we were misguidedly told were around $20. They didn't tell us that was PER PERSON for a jaunt into town. There was a cheaper option - the public system - that worked great for $2.50 but didn't go everywhere and didn't operate after dark (you know, when you need it after dinner in town) I was super lucky to have joined up with a really great group of people for the week - they were fun, smart, like-minded and also didn't really need to spend all day listening to someone read to us all day. We decided to ditch out of a few of the lectures that were about things we already knew about or things we were not going to do (biofloc). CJ had a car and rounded up a nice little group of folks (me included) to go off on island excursions. The first thing on most peoples' minds was the beach! The beaches and diving are really nice on St. Croix. Puerto Rico has some nice beaches and others that are ok but St. Croix beaches are cleaner and whiter. Diving in St. Croix is wonderful also, but the weather was a little rough the whole week so diving was a no go.

The beach trips involved playing in the water, drinking drinks and going to Turtles Deli for lunch. When Jeff and I visited 6 years ago our favorite place was Turtles because of the great sandwiches and nice little beach. The beaches are all on the Fredriksted end of the island where it is mainly beach bars. We ate at a place that I thought would be crappy but turned out to be pretty good - I had pork wontons with a really good ginger tamarind sauce and we shared other stuff too. CJ wanted to drive around the island so we did that for a bit and it made me homesick - the roads are just like our jungle roads. We even went down a road that only one car would fit on and encountered a burned out car - just like home - time to back it up and out and end the little trip on the back roads! The water was clear and you could see turtle grass, reef and turquoise water.

On the other end of the island the water was quite rough and as it turns out, our trip to Buck Island as the class finale had to be cancelled (and they had no alternative). I arranged an alternative activity that I'll blog about later.

I don't know if you could get to this beach and I definitely don't think I'd swim in this area but it was really pretty.

Back in Fredriksted for a couple nights we were there a guy was bringing his horses out into the water for a bath. They would get out and roll in the sand just like dogs do...feet up in the air with a head toss!

We visited Pt Udall and the monument there.

Another day we went to the Arboretum. I always enjoy arboretums because it gives me ideas for the one I am making on our property. It was really fun to know what most of the stuff was and to be able to point out highly scented flowers or odd fruits. This sausage tree is one I don't have but it is high on cool factor with the odd, prehistoric fruits hanging off it. Then we came across a cannonball tree which we do have in the yard.

The cannonball tree flowers smell really nice and are almost orchid-like. The girls did a jewelry run into Christiansted - CJ got a bracelet and a nice ring and I got a hurricane ring (Sonjas). Erika picked up some things for her son. The girls only trip was fun and started off with a fresh fruit drink. I had cacao and banana and almond and spiralena looked tasty too. It was really nice to be somewhere else for a week (somewhere that was still warm and slow). It was really nice to have intelligent conversations in English with people interested in the same things. In Puerto Rico I know enough Spanish to follow along but can't formulate specifics about permaculture or general philosophies about food and living because I don't know the words nor do I have much human contact (except weekends when we are diving and/or caving with folks who speak both spanish and english). I had a sore throat the whole week. It reconfirmed how lucky we are to have ended up in Puerto Rico instead of St. Croix. St Croix had lots of smokers and drinkers and if you are there for more than a week it would be excruciatingly boring. In Puerto Rico most of the smokers are tourists (we know where to avoid going), there are tons of outdoor lakes, hikes, caves, mangroves, waterfalls, forests etc to explore. Work is hard to find but compared to St. Croix is a lot more likely. Puerto Rico also has good tasting water. Water was horrible and scarce in St. Croix so I actually bought a couple gallons. I have to say that St. Croix food options were much improved over our previous trip or I am used to eating such awful crap that marginal food seemed wonderful! The overall assessment though was that it was a nice trip full of very interesting people and conversations. If you are planning a Carribean vacation though skip St. Croix, only go to Puerto Rico if you know someone there (they don't understand tourism and even for locals doing basic things is difficult).

Aquaponics Course Overview

I just spent a week on St. Croix attending an aquaponics course. The course was presented by Jim Rakocy (the aquaponics god), Don Bailey (money man), Jason and Charlie (fish and plant guys). If you follow our blog you know that there is no green food in Puerto Rico and you know that I need to change that. Aquaponics sounded like just the thing...fresh fish and fresh veggies. I thought I wanted to set up a hydroponic system and then the thought of raising fish as well came up and since Jeff has always had a fish tank we figured why not aquaponics? I signed up for the expensive course and last week started my journey.
Jeff took me to the Mayaguez airport and there was a taxi sitting at the curb. If you know the Mayaguez airport you know that this is not good and that the taxi was for me and the other 2 passengers of the plane that had mechanical problems. Cape Air put us in a taxi, or "Breaking Bad Mobile," to head for San Juan. (If you don't watch Breaking Bad on tv you should.) Of course there was no way to get there in the same amount of time (30 minutes in the air = 2 hours on the ground) so I missed the connecting flight. They put me on an American Eagle flight that left at 2pm instead of the 11:30 Cape Air flight I was supposed to be on. I arrived on St. Croix at 2:30 instead of noon but that was fine since I wasn't renting a car and would just go check in at the University and wait for others to arrive.


Just so happens that 2 other people from the class were on my American Eagle flight and were on it because of flight problems. Diana and Pablo (from Argentina) and I then waited for Stephen at the airport for an hour or so under the misguided idea that the taxi rate would be less with more people in it and we didn't want to have Stephen have to pay a lot more and have to find things on his own. Since I was late and was pleased to have others to join we figured it would be ok to wait for him. The 4 mile trip to the University was 8 dollars each - the shock that just kept shocking as the week went on! I got checked in (stayed in the dorm) and then headed into Christiansted for dinner with some other folks. We wandered for an hour maybe trying to find somewhere decent to eat and then settled on what turned out to be kind of crappy food. The company was great though! The next day class started and was a long day of researchers reading powerpoint presentations to us (researchers are not teachers). The class also turned out to be way to large (92 people) and that is a number they were not prepared for. Hooray for the afternoon when we got to go outside to actually see the set ups! This is what I want...green food. This is a member of the morning glory family called Kang Kong and it is a tasty green you can you raw (new leaves) or cooked - it is "water spinach." I snagged a couple shoots and brought them back with me. All this green is "planted" in water - the giant water troughs are called "raceways" and the plants are planted in little mesh pots sitting in holes made in a Styrofoam type sheet with holes in it that floats on the water. Fish crap water is circulated through these raceways and feeds the plants.

They were growing many herbs, different kinds of lettuce, cantaloupe, cucumbers and there are many possibilities that they don't grow since they don't make money (they tie up the raceways for months rather than weeks as is the case with lettuce).


Green green green and oh, what's that under the covered area? A sewage treatment facility? Nope - all the filters and degassers and fish tanks required for the fish breeding part of the system. Kind of industrial looking.

A peek under the rafts shows beautiful root systems and nice leafy greens - that's what I want.

Besides all the clarifiers, bio filters, take-the-chunks-out filters, fish rearing tanks and everything there was another way to do things that was a little more simple but kind of disgusting. The Biofloc system. Everything in this course was developed by the University of the Virgin Islands (mainly Jim Rakocy). It is all on the internet everywhere. This course was geared to about 30% of the people who attended. The people who want to raise fish and vegetables FOR PROFIT (theoretically). The rest of us were home hobbyists (40%) or people from all over the world who already raise Tilapia on a large scale and I guess wanted to hear it from the master before he retires. I don't fall into the "commercial" category. Isn't this lovely? A sewage treatment pond in your yard. Don't you want one?

Raising fish commercially is involved and the master has perfected how to do it with the goal being to produce even sized portions of fish that don't have a terrible "off flavor" and to produce vegetables to basically pay for feeding and raising the fish. There is an added goal of making "added value" products (breaded fillets, fillets with herb packets and recipes etc etc) in an effort to earn more money. Since we are basically fishing out all the naturally occurring fish in the oceans this may be the wave of the future. Unfortunately China kind of has the market on Tilapia and probably everything else at this point. Lots of energy demands that don't work for us on this scale because of the solar but could work for a backyard design.

I am having some philosophical problems with the whole deal so I focused on taking away some applicable construction ideas for my hybrid system. If we want to have an attractive pond with koi this would be a good construction idea. Coated welded wire mesh and metal stakes are the structure of this fish tank. The liner is tied to the walls which would be less costly than a fiberglass or plastic tank and more importantly, easier to move around and locate on the property. I could then berm up dirt against the walls and plant nice looking things there.

More welded wire mesh, wood beams and cement for construction of the building for the fish tanks - I like the idea of using the wire mesh to keep shade cloth from flapping around in the wind for a greenhouse structure. I think another layer on top of the cloth would really keep it in place on the roof. The wire would keep chickens and cats out.

I enjoyed checking the fish mouths for eggs ..

It was interesting sexing the fish before separating them for sex changing.

They are kind of attractive fish. A bit boring to eat but that mildness lets you do lots of things with it and here in Puerto Rico fresh fish options are slim to none.

I'll have a few more posts about the trip - extra curricular activities and my philosophy about what I want to do next...I am kind of tired of thinking about it right now though.

Basa - Yah, We Can Eat It

After the visit to Caribe Fisheries, Inc. I was pretty excited to find an alternative to Tilapia. Not that I don't like Tilapia, but it is good to know what other possibilities taste like before committing to a particular fish. We will probably end up with 2 500 gallon tanks and will try to grow enough fish to have one meal a week (approximately 100 plus pounds a year). All this may change when I take the aquaponics class in June and find out more about it. Our biggest constraint will be power - since we are on solar there is only so much power we can dedicate to this project at night. We have to make sure we can power the pumps.

Anyway, when Jeff filleted the fish the skin peeled off really well and the smallish 2 pounders made nice, clean fillets. This is a big consideration since preparing a whole small fish can be a pain if it has scales and spines etc. The flesh was a little orange which surprised me since most catfish I've cooked before were most definitely white. My plans for the parts we don't eat are to feed them back to the fish, compost them, make fish stock etc.

We were hungry and I didn't want to do anything fancy - just wanted to see how the texture was and how they would hold up when cooked. I dredged the fillets in flour with a little salt and pepper and pan fried them in olive oil. Then I toasted some slivered almonds and deglazed with some of my newly made naranja agria (sour orange) marmalade. (Plant this tree - the oranges are great for marmalade and marinades.)

We have eaten catfish before,usually blackened, and had boingy parts - kind of rubbery parts. I don't like that. This fish did not have any chewy bits. It is a very mild fish with a softer texture than Tilapia which tends to be flaky. Tilapia is mild also. We can't grow any of our favorite fish and of course can't buy any here so Basa I think will be a good, sustainable choice - and that's what the whole thing is about anyway. Mike at Caribe Fisheries is using a fish food that is low in fish meal and high in soy and corn (I think) and that makes it more sustainable as well. Ideally I am hoping to stock our tanks (when we get set up) with Basa and Tilapia if the two fish can live in peace! Since their textures are different the variety would be good. It will also be more entertaining to see different things in the tanks (we hope to put shrimp in there too).

So the verdict is ....a thumbs up for Basa! Reasons you may want to eat it 1) it is sustainable (most of the chillo, or snapper, here comes from elsewhere since PR is fished out) 2) it is inexpensive 3) you can get it REALLY fresh 4) since it is mild it is versatile. If you can't grow it you now know where to get it. I tossed some fillets in the freezer to see how it holds up there but am told it freezes well.  So right now I am gathering information where ever I can about different set-ups and thinking about locations and supplies etc. www.backyardaquaponics.com has a nice forum and some photo samples of different systems. This will be a biggish project initially!

Caribe Fisheries Inc. Visit

Today I took a quick visit to Caribe Fisheries in Lajas. With the problems involved with growing fresh food I have been looking into hydroponics which led to looking at aquaponics when a blog reader mentioned a class on St. Croix. I sent my deposit for the course which is in June. Before I go there for the week long class I want to have a good idea of what kind of system I want to set up and want to compile a list of concerns/questions to make sure this will be a good choice for our purposes - making food. My concerns are 1) will it work with our solar system 2) insect problems 3) how do you pollinate if your garden is screened in 3) how large does the system have to be 4) how about growing shrimp? There are other concerns but these are a few. People we know know that this is an interest of ours and at a party last weekend we met Michael McGee who is running the tropical aquaculture farm called Caribe Fisheries Inc. in Lajas. I asked if I could come out to see what he was up to and he generously took some time with me today. (thanks Mike). As a bonus, he went to school with the guy teaching the St. Croix class and is very familiar with the system he uses/teaches. With the reading I have done I think I will end up with kind of a hybrid system of some sort so I was very interested in what Mike is doing since it differs from what I will learn about in June.

Since he is selling Basa (a type of catfish) his system is far larger than anything we will do but it is always good to get information and see ideas in action. A large part of his business is selling fish to pet stores - koi, fresh water tropicals, catfish and numerous other fish I couldn't identify. The food fish part of the business involves sales mainly to restaurants and stores in San Juan. The St. Croix farm raises Tilapia which is a flaky white fish but not my favorite fish and I am interested in how the Basa tastes and holds up when frozen. He raises fish to sell as stock and if I like Basa better I may well be purchasing fingerlings from him. Maybe I'll do a combination of Tilapia and Basa...hmmm. When Jeff and I were talking to him at the party he kept mentioning how Lajas was perfect for fish farming and I just didn't get it. Now that I have visited, I understand why. When the fish are of a certain size they are put out into ponds simply dug into the ground. Since there is a high clay content in the soil there is no need for liners etc so it is a simpler type set up. This is one of many ponds on the 14 acres.

He has numerous tanks as nurseries, for breeding, for stock of different sizes and type. These tanks are 500 gallons each and are commercial water tanks with the tops cut off.

There are a series of other kind of growing areas where fish hang out and grow larger before they go out into the ponds (Basa and maybe Koi? Not sure about Koi) and other fish go into a wall of aquariums.

What I was most interested in was the vegetable area. Instead of a closed system where the vegetables are grown hydroponically, his system is open (he has the option to have it run closed) and the fish water is piped out to his culantro beds. This open system allows any additional fertilizing or insect control (he doesn't have problems with insects) to be done separate from the fish system which simplifies that. With a closed system you cannot use fertilizer or even soap control on the veggies unless you want to kill your fish! There are some advantages to this. Also, since the culantro (could be other veggies) is grown in soil you have more choice of what can grow but you have to work around the soil problems of soil compacting etc. Hydroponics in just water lets you grow mainly greens, and adding expanded sand media allows you to grow some root vegetables, and soil gives even more options. His beds are on drip irrigation so he can vary the watering depending on weather. His system uses very little energy to produce fish and veggies and most everything is recycled. The fish food contains very little fish meal (mainly soy and corn), the water is all used to grow things and solid waste gets composted and reused. There isn't any energy spent on packaging and shipping and trucking...he sells primarily local. Puerto Rico should be doing this rather than buying 85% of its food from other places! What would be even better would be if other byproduct water he has could be dumped onto other crops on the rest of the land (water from draining ponds etc). There is only so much you can take on though.

So tonight we will eat some fresh (as in scooped up and killed on the visit) Basa and see if we like the texture/taste. I will fillet and freeze another fish to see how it holds up and consider this as an option for our system. There were many good ideas here. What we will be doing will be less extensive of course, but to be able to have someone take some time to share what he knows was wonderful and appreciated! I think we will end up making a hybrid system using the best ideas of the several methods I know about - it is really fun thinking about how to design this!. Oh - if you want Koi for your own pond, fresh fish to eat, or are thinking of an aquarium in the house he is the guy to call! He has a website www.caribefish.com and his contact information is there. He isn't far off of highway 2 so if you want fresh Basa head out that way. Tomorrow I'll report back on how we like the fish...