Fish and Plant Crop Management
Fish and plant crop management involves managing the
relationship between the volume of fish and plant crops
needed to meet the objectives of the marketing
strategy, in terms of the type, amount, and quality of
crops and fish that are needed to meet market
demands. This involves an understanding of both the
approach that will be used to raise the fish and produce
the crops and the schedule for planting and harvesting
the plant crops and stocking and harvesting the fish.
Discuss your approach to plant crop and fish production
including the specific method to be used such as raft
based, media based, hybrid, or other systems of
hydroponic growing systems.
Consider the following questions:
• What type of hydroponic system will be used for
the plant crops?
• What is the primary product? Since there is an
interdependent relationship between the fish
and the plant crops, will the volume of plant
crops required to meet anticipated market
demand drive the volume of fish needed to
provide appropriate nutrients to the plants or
will the volume of fish needed to meet market
demand drive the volume of plants needed to
remove the by-products from the water to
support the fish population?
• Will fish be raised to be marketed as a product of the farm or managed solely to support the
plant crop production?
• Do you intend to be certified as an organic producer?
• Will plant crops be started from seeds on the farm or seedlings purchased from an out-side
supplier?
• Will fish be breed on the farm or purchased from an outside supplier?
• How will water conditions such as pH, temperature, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, oxygen, total
dissolved solids, and hardness, electrical conductivity (EC) be managed?
• What production management alternatives are going to be implemented for issues such as pest,
and disease control, water supply, seed and plant selection, waste handling and disposal, and
crop quality control?
• How will plantings be made to achieve the required crop harvest to meet the marketing strategy
(e.g., overplanting)?
• Will you be planting and harvesting year round?
• How will your planting and harvesting schedules change over the first five years of production?
Types of Hydroponic Growing Systems
• Raft-based consisting of Styrofoam rafts
floating in a relatively deep aquaculture
basin in troughs.
• Media based recirculating aquaponics:
solid media such as gravel or clay beads,
held in a container that is flooded with
water from the aquaculture. This type of
aquaponics is also known as closed-loop
aquaponics.
• Media based reciprocating aquaponics:
solid media in a container that is
alternately flooded and drained utilizing
different types of siphon drains. This type
of aquaponics is also known as flood-and-
drain aquaponics or ebb-and-flow
aquaponics.
• Hybrid - Combination of raft-based and
media-based where media-based acts as
filter prior to raft-based
• Other systems include towers that are
trickle-fed from the top, nutrient film
technique channels, horizontal PVC pipes
with holes for the pots, plastic barrels cut
in half with gravel or rafts in them. Each
approach has its own benefits.
Aquaponics Business Plan User Guide
13