E2O-Grower & Marketer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 17, 2003
Putting Water
To Work
(Continued from Page El 9)
tank of oxygen-enriched
water.
Brought back to holding
tanks, the fish will be sent out
in a week to ten days.
To fill a customer order, the
harvested fish are put into a
double-walled box with a wa
terproof coating.
A plastic bag that gets one
gallons of water is pumped up
with pure oxygen and filled
with four pounds of fish,
which could be 1,000 small
Comets, one hundred fifty
3-4-inch fish, or one
14-16-inch Koi.
A cold pack also in the
boxes helps to keep the fish
cool and slow their metabo-
lism.
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,” Mike Rice, manager of the family
business, said.
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Dan Shelly, assistant biologist, probes for parasit
es in the fish’s gills and tails.
The water is treated with a The feeder fish are sold by
bacteriostat and salt “to put weight. They are graded as
the slime coat on them” that the y swim through size racks
the fish may have lost as they “ s 0 we Bet8 et a uniform size in
were transported and han- each pool ”he said. The fanci
er fish, however, are hand-
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sorted and hand-counted.
The fish are taken to
airports to be shipped.
Typically, the farm has
four trucks on the road on
Mondays.
Business Beginnings
Rice’s grandfather, Earl
Rice, founded the business
in 1923. Attracted by the
water source of the Cono
cocheague Creek, he pur
chased three ponds that
Employee Sharon Riley prepares
fish for shipment. The harvested fish
are put into a double-walled box with
a waterproof coating. A plastic bag
is filled with one gallon of water and
is pumped up with pure oxygen.
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The farm includes more than 300 ponds ranging
from a quarter acre to six acres in size.
are still in use at the farm.
To keep up with the in
creased volume of fish raised
at the farm, seven wells now
add their water to the farm’s
ponds.
In 1958, Mike Rice’s father,
Richard, took over after work
ing with his father, Earl Rice.
Richard, who managed the
business for 40 years, in
creased pond numbers from
approximately 40.
In 1998, Richard’s son Mike
took over the management re
sponsibilities after working to
gether with his father for 15
years.
“It is a total team effort,”
said Mike Rice. “Mount Par-
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nell is here because of its loyal
employees. We have folks that
have been here 15-30 years.”
The business includes 25 full
time employees including two
biologists.
Besides helping out at the
farm, Richard and his wife,
Sue, operate a retail gift shop,
The Goldfish Bam, to sell fish
to walk-in customers.
Mike is joined by his wife,
Nancy, and children Laura,
Garrett, and Will, who help
care for a herd of 30 Black
Angus cattle.
The entire farm lies in the
shadow of nearby Mount Par
nell.
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