Koi carp?

[Back to Nature]

Can koi carp be eaten? If so, how do they taste? If they don't taste very good by human standards, can they be fed to animals as part of a raw prey-model diet? Thanks!

 

[elevan]

Yes, they can be eaten as can goldfish to whom they are related. You could liken their flavor as muddy depending on the environment that they are kept in. By human standards, they usually aren't eaten but you could feed them to other animals that eat fish.

 

[Back to Nature]

I might taste them, but if they taste muddy I'd probably just use them as pet food. Thanks!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Koi are an ornamental fish that are kept in ponds and aquariums and are usually very expensive and not eaten.

However, there are many different types of "carp". Many species of carp are eaten around the world. In fact Israeli Carp are the number 1 farmed fish in the world. It just depends on the specific species that you are talking about.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I might taste them, but if they taste muddy I'd probably just use them as pet food. Thanks!

Most fish that taste "muddy" do so because of the environment they are raised in (dirty water) not specifically because of the fish itself*.

Some examples would be carp, catfish, tilapia etc.


*Though I'm sure there are exceptions, just some downright bad tasting fish, but then they wouldn't be used in aquaculture!

 

[Back to Nature]

I was thinking of raising tilapia, perch, bass, salmon, bream, and koi to feed my pets and sell to family. If the koi are expensive I probably won't feed them but can still sell them to pond owners. I don't really like fish myself.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

The other ones are good but salmon need a LOT of space and are fairly temperamental about conditions. You would probably need an underground fish hatchery type pond for those.

Tilapia are good but need their water to be heated.

I don't know about the other ones as we have never done them. Perch are supposed to be really really good, and we were going to try them, but as of yet I haven't been able to find anywhere to buy them.

Koi are like "show dogs", the buyers of the expensive ones are very picky about their conformation/ colors/ etc. And the ones that aren't picky won't pay anything for them. Not saying it can't be done I just don't see much of a market for low level koi. Unless you plan on starting with really expensive show stock and breeding from there with lots of tanks in the house and stuff. And by expensive (out here) they can be several hundred dollars apiece.

 

[ZippyTheHappyChimp]

Many of the fish farms use Tilapia as part of the cleaning process. There's a Dirty Jobs vid up about a farm in some desert-y region that does striped bass first, and then after the harvest and the tanks are all sorts of nasty, they do a run or 2 of Tilapia to help clean it out.

It's quite nasty as shown, but probably not that much worse than the wild in reality.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30832-dirty-jobs-striped-bass-farm-video.htm

You also might want to double check allowable species in your area. There's a serious issue about Silver Carp and other asian carps in the eastern waterways.

http://conference.healthylakes.org/...nce-updates/act-now-act-fast-stop-asian-carp/

 

[Back to Nature]

Many of the fish farms use Tilapia as part of the cleaning process. There's a Dirty Jobs vid up about a farm in some desert-y region that does striped bass first, and then after the harvest and the tanks are all sorts of nasty, they do a run or 2 of Tilapia to help clean it out.

It's quite nasty as shown, but probably not that much worse than the wild in reality.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30832-dirty-jobs-striped-bass-farm-video.htm

You also might want to double check allowable species in your area. There's a serious issue about Silver Carp and other asian carps in the eastern waterways.

http://conference.healthylakes.org/...nce-updates/act-now-act-fast-stop-asian-carp/

I would raise them in a pond or some sort of tank not connected to a public water source. I think that if there is no risk of introduction to the "wild" then it would be okay. I'll check anyways tough, since the government need to get involved in everything.