Trout Farming
Raising Trout is a form of Aquaculture. David has the eggs flown in from the Pacific NW. The eggs immediately go into the hatching house troughs. The water in the troughs comes directly out of the mountain at 57 degrees. Warm water will kill trout. The water also needs to contain sufficient levels of oxygen and no contaminants. The eggs start to hatch in 7-10 days. The “sac fry” fall to the bottom of the trough and survive on the protein of the egg sac. After about 10-12 days, they begin to swim. Multiple times each day, the troughs need to be cleaned of the left over egg sacs. As the baby trout begin to swim, they get fed special food. Approximately 90% survive this stage when all goes well. They are all female fish. Introducing any males would cause fighting and territory wars. When the fingerlings reach about 2” long, they get moved to the outdoor “nursery” raceway. This is a manual process. Trout can die from stress (who knew?) The raceway is covered with wire to prevent raccoons and other predators from making a meal of them.
