The secret of success
harvest this year. The tilapia arrive at Quixotic at
four days old, and it takes seven months for them to reach harvest weight of one and a half pounds. ‘They are raised in RAS tanks’, explains Constant. ‘The water is kept at a constant temperature of between 78 and 81 degrees, is well oxygenated and is cleaned every hour.
Each individual tank has a bed of plastic beads covered in bacteria. The water enters through the bottom of the tank up into the beads and the bacteria consume the ammonia and enzymes in the water, and large, organic matter is retained and siphoned from the tanks. This organic matter is then used to fertilise our fields.’ Tilapia are hardy fish, but when the ideal conditions are met and the fish are happy they eat well and swim lot faster – they are full of energy, they are constantly moving.’ Quixotic is working on an organic feed for the fish, and whilst there is no USDA organic standard as yet, when there is one
Quixotic hopes to be the first farm to be certified. ‘We also don’t use any chemis-
try in our fish’, says Constant. ‘No growth hormones or antibiotics, for example. Our customers de- mand it, and they are also looking for sustainability and traceability, which we can also offer,’ he adds. ‘Over the two facilities we will be producing around 1.2 million lbs of live weight annually’, Con- stant explains. The fish are also stocked sequentially in order for us to offer a year-round supply, which we sell as either plain fillets – which are delicious with just a little salt and pepper – or as a range of value-added frozen products, the flavours of which change depending on the part of the US, as different regions enjoy different flavours.’ Five years ago Quixotic prod- ucts were stocked in 25 grocery stores across Colorado. They are now stocked in 300 grocery stores across 31 states, ‘and that figure is set to double pretty soon,’ says Constant. FF
RELERA
“ MSD How much could it be costing you?
EX5, a new strain of Yersinia ruckeri, the causative agent of Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM) is spreading through trout stocks throughout Europe.
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To find out how the EX5 strain of Y. ruckeri is spreading across Europe, you can see a map plotting its incidence at:
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For more information on new AQUAVAC Relera and disease prevention strategies, visit:
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aqua@merck.com.
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com 71
The business plan was to process the tilapia into frozen products
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