Putting Water To Work
(Continued from Page El)
with a straight tail), American
Fantails (goldfish with trans
lucent, waving fins), Black
Moors (with bubble eyes), Red
Cap Orandas (white with a
puffy red head), and Calico
and Calico Telescopes are also
part of the fish available from
the hatchery.
Others are ornamental Cat
fish, Koi Carp, Longfin (But
terfly) Koi, Red-and-White
Fantails, and Rosy Red Min
nows.
Challenges
“We take our hits with
mother nature just like any
other type of farm,” said Rice.
Droughts, floods, heat, ice,
supply-and-demand, oxygen
depletion, parasites, diseases,
and predators take their toll
on the farm’s bottom line.
To protect the farm’s prize
brood fish, five acres of ponds
have wire strung over top to
discourage predators from the
sky, such as blue herons, os
preys, kingfishers, and sea
gulls.
Predator barriers are also
around ponds to keep bull
frogs, water snakes, snapping
turtles, and mink from prey-
STANCILLS INCORPORATED
MARYLAND SAND AND GRAVEL COMPANY
HAS
CONTACT
TERRY STANCILL or EMLYN STANCILL WHITIN
Toll Free 877-536-9572 Fax 410-939-2110
Email TDS@stancills.com
ESW @ stancills.com
ing on the fish.
“We estimate that we lose
20 percent of the crop a year
to predators,” he said.
“When we stock the ponds,
we try to stock maybe 20 per
cent extra for ponds that will
have losses because of preda
tors.”
To offset these losses and
continue to grow the business,
“10 years ago we saw the need
for a more exotic type of fish,”
said Rice. “We wanted a
niche.”
Facing increasing competi
tion from southern feeder fish
growers, the Rice family made
the decision to begin a pilot
project and began to build a
closed system on the farm.
Consequently, more than
three years ago the Rices put
in twenty 400-gallon tanks
that recirculate water with a
filtration system “high-tech
fish culture” said Rice.
The ornamental goldfish in
the closed system enjoy
72-degree water year-round,
since “goldfish won’t grow
when they’re cold,” said Rice.
An ornamental fish grown
outside will take approxi
mately two years to grow four
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inches. However “we can do it
in 12 weeks in a closed sys-
tem.”
With the success of faster
growth and a ready market
for the closed-system fish, the
Rices expanded the facility to
include another 20 tanks.
Outside, eight inches of ice
cover the ponds except for
small circles of unfrozen
areas, kept open by circulating
water, so employees can moni
tor the fish underneath. “Fish
come up there if they are
stressed or sick,” said Rice.
During the winter months,
employees feed the fish ap
proximately once a month. In
the summer, however, the
hungry fish eat once a day,
seven days a week. A blower
truck sprays feed to the larger
ponds, and workers hand
scoop feed to the small ponds.
Spawning Time
The fish that are marketed
as breeding fish are culled
three times before they make
the cut, said Rice. Less than
one percent of the fish that
workers evaluate become
breeding fish.
At the farm, 30 small ponds
are set aside for the breeding
fish. The outside ponds in
clude an earthen bottom, con
crete walls, and a netting to
X
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 17, 2003, Grower & Marketer-El9
protect the valuable fish.
Spawning begins about
mid-April and continues
through the beginning of July.
The ponds include 50 percent
males (bucks) and SO percent
females (does).
The fish can only be sexed
in the spring, when the males
exhibit a sandpaper-like grit
on their gills.
All goldfish and there are
200-some varieties “are
members of the Carp family
and go to vegetation to
spawn,” he said.
Consequently, workers put
racks with spawning mats
made of hog hair and horse
mane for the fish to gravitate
to.
“The mats are collected
when we get a decent amount
of eggs on them, ideally
10,000,” Rice said. The eggs
“look like little white pin
heads” on the black mats.
Workers may transport the
mats five times in a morning,
since the fish are generally fin
ished laying eggs by noon. The
mats are put onto a cart and
can be out of the water ten
minutes without damage.
Wet burlap suffices when
the mats must be out of the
water for longer than 10 min
utes.
The mats
are hauled
to produc
tion ponds
where the
eggs hatch
in 3-5, or
even 10 days, depending on
the weather.
The young fish “are all
black when they first hatch
and start to color within 6-8
weeks,” he said.
An egg sac remains with the
fish the first five days. After
the first week the fish begin
eating a specially-formulated
ration that will change as they
mature.
“The crop that we spawn in
the spring stretches until the
following season,” he said. Al
though they begin selling the
fish when they are three
months old, some of the fish
will be there for one year.
Samples from the young
fish are checked for diseases
two to three times a week.
When a customer order
comes in during the cold
months, workers go to the
smaller ponds that are set up
to allow winter harvest. After
cutting into the ice with a
chainsaw, the workers lift the
ice out with a boom and fork
of a logging truck.
The ponds each averag
ing three feet in depth are
drained into a six-foot basin
with a standpipe.
“We get it to about halfway
down, bait the fish with feed,
and then surround them with
a seine,” said Rice.
“We try to get out 80-90
percent with a seine.”
The fish are then bucketed
into a truck complete with an
Viticulture Meeting
Draws Crowd
MIDDLETOWN (Dauphin Co.) An alternative
viticulture meeting here Jan. 28-29 attracted 152 par
ticipants from 13 states and Canada, demonstrating
the broad interest in this topic.
The meeting also hosted seven regional and national
product and equipment suppliers as well as the Penn
sylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
Sustainable viticulture was addressed by Alice Wise
from Long Island and Al MacDonald from Oregon.
Alice is currently involved in developing a formal sus
tainable program for her region. MacDonald is presi
dent of the only internationally sanctioned sustainable
viticulture program in the U.S. Both talked about the
thoughtful use of low input forms of viticulture.
Nancy Wenner gave an update on Elwin Stewart’s
work with vine decline organisms in Pennsylvania and
New York vineyards, still a pressing concern in east
ern vineyards.
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Harvesting The Fish
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