Online Aquaculture Course
Aquaculture is the farming of water creatures for human consumption. This subject is concerned with the culture and care of fresh water aquatic animals and focuses on Trout, Barramundi, Bass, Marron, Red Claw and the Yabbie. You will also learn about production systems, other species, feeding, harvesting and health of fish as well as set up of an aquaculture venture.
Aquaculture as an industry grew by around 20% last year. As global fish resources come under increasing pressure, this is an industry that continues to grow rapidly.
Aquaculture can be:
- In salt water or fresh water
- As small as you like (Grow fish for your own food in a pond at home)
- As large as you want (Commercial enterprises might be an intensive half acre or hundreds of acres
- Combined with other farming (eg. Aquaponics)
Aquaculture is the farming of water creatures for human consumption. This subject is concerned with the culture and care of fresh water aquatic animals and focuses on Trout, Barramundi, Bass, Marron, Red Claw and the Yabbie. You will also learn about production systems, other species, feeding, harvesting and health of fish as well as set up of an aquaculture venture.
FISH FARMING IS A BOOMING INDUSTRY:
Demand for fish is growing much faster than supply. This course can provide a starting point for a lifelong career, or a very profitable business.
There are 10 lessons in this course:
- Introduction To Aquaculture
- Scope and nature of freshwater aquaculture
- Resources, references, organisations around the world
- Equipment and material suppliers
- Production Systems - EP and IP
- Open, semi closed and closed systems
- Extensive production
- Intensive production
- Water containment: earth, concrete, wood, brick, stone, fibre-glass, liners, etc
- Dams and water storage: siting, site
- What Species To Farm
- Selection criteria
- Climate
- Water resources
- Finance
- Scale of operation
- Other resources: manpower, knowledge, support services, etc.
- Market demand and access
- Ecological considerations
- Risk considerations
- Review of different fish: we review many fish and other species suited to farming in Australia,the UK and other countries), including:
- Trout
- Rainbow trout
- Brown trout
- Bass
- Catfish
- Carp
- Cod
- River blackfish
- Marron
- Algae
- Trout
- Three main trout species
- Farming trout
- Water
- Determining flow in source water
- Water temperature
- Water dissolved oxygen
- Stocking rates for production pools
- Spawning trout
- Checking the fish
- Stripping technique
- Fertilisation of ova
- Hatching ova
- From hatch to free swimming stage
- Feed
- After free swim stage
- Barramundi
- Industry perspective
- Breeding and growth rates
- Induced breeding; hormone injection
- Growth
- Fry management and after care
- Grow out
- Pond rearing for larvae
- Barramundi diseases and parasites
- Bass
- Varieties: Australian bass, American loudmouth, Smallmouth
- Habitat requirements: temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH
- Natural spawning cycle
- Controlled spawning
- Harvesting
- Freshwater Crayfish
- Scope and nature of crustacean aquaculture
- Marron and Yabbie
- Conditions: water, temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, organic loading, water clarity, pod size
- Initial breeding stocks
- Production potential
- Stocking rates
- Breeding
- Growth
- Feeding
- Composts for Marron feeding
- Red Claw
- Yabbie
- Spiny Freshwater Crayfish
- Setting Up A Fish Farm
- Land and water
- Water requirements
- Extensive production dams
- Intensive production pools and raceways
- Cages
- Biological filtration systems
- Filter efficiency
- Clearing turbid water in dams
- Protecting fish
- Improving genetic quality of fish
- Economics of establishing and running an aquaculture farm
- Financial management
- Financial institutions
- Better planning
- Economics
- What to plan for
- Production
- Marketing
- Fish Foods & Feeding
- Scope and nature
- Pelleted feed
- Live feed
- Brine shrimp
- Daphnia
- Worms
- Night lights
- Fishmeal
- Oil meals
- Fish food production
- Beef heart
- Legumes
- Seafood and vegetable mix
- Earthworm and compost production
- Harvesting
- Introduction
- Harvesting techniques: seine nets, gill nets, traps, long lines, funnel trap, flyke trap, etc
- Fish pumps
- Mechanical graders
- Fish health management
- Review of diseases: salmonids, barramundi, trout, carp, etc
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
For more information on this course, please request your free course information pack.