Fish Farming (Aquaculture) Business Basics

01

What fish farming is

In simple words

Fish farming is like keeping a big aquarium, but the fish are raised to be sold as food. You give them clean water, food and a safe home until they are big enough.

Key facts

Aquaculture means farming aquatic animals and plants (fish, shrimp, shellfish, seaweed) instead of catching them in the wild.
In 2022, for the first time, aquaculture produced more aquatic animals than wild capture: 94.4 million tonnes, or 51 percent of the total, according to FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024. Asia produced 70 percent of aquatic animals that year.
Common systems:

System	What it is	Good to know
Earthen ponds	Dug ponds filled with water	Common for tilapia, milkfish, catfish, carp
Cages or pens	Nets in a lake, river or sea	Uses existing water; shared-water and permit issues
Tanks and recirculating systems (RAS)	Tanks where water is filtered and reused	More control, more equipment and electricity
Aquaponics	Fish waste feeds plants growing in water	Two products, more to learn

In the Philippines, milkfish (bangus) and tilapia are major farmed species tracked in the Philippine Statistics Authority's quarterly fisheries reports.

Step by step

Write the four systems in a list: earthen pond, cage or pen, tank or recirculating system, aquaponics.
Next to each, write what water source you have for it (well, river, lake, sea, rain or none).
Cross out the systems you cannot do with your land, water and budget.
Visit a market or ask a seller near you and write two fish species people already buy.
Choose the one system you could realistically use first.
Check: you have one system, one water source and two species written on one page.

Watch on YouTube

Aquaculture systems: a basic overviewUW-Stevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01What fish farming is

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Half the fish and seafood animals people eat now come from farms, not the wild."
[Text on screen: FAO 2022: aquaculture 51% of aquatic animal production] "FAO says 2022 was the first year aquaculture passed wild catch."
[Screen: pond, cage, tank, aquaponics] "Farms can be ponds, cages in a lake, indoor tanks, or fish plus plants."
[Host] "Your job: pick the system that fits your water, your money and your buyers."

Try it now

Write down which system you could realistically use (pond, cage, tank or aquaponics), what water source you have, and two fish species people already buy near you.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Fish Farming (Aquaculture) Business Basics" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "What fish farming is".

What the lesson teaches:
- Aquaculture means farming aquatic animals and plants (fish, shrimp, shellfish, seaweed) instead of catching them in the wild.
- In 2022, for the first time, aquaculture produced more aquatic animals than wild capture: 94.4 million tonnes, or 51 percent of the total, according to FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024. Asia produced 70 percent of aquatic animals that year.
- Common systems:
- System - What it is - Good to know
- Earthen ponds - Dug ponds filled with water - Common for tilapia, milkfish, catfish, carp
- Cages or pens - Nets in a lake, river or sea - Uses existing water; shared-water and permit issues
- Tanks and recirculating systems (RAS) - Tanks where water is filtered and reused - More control, more equipment and electricity

The exercise I'm working on:
Write down which system you could realistically use (pond, cage, tank or aquaponics), what water source you have, and two fish species people already buy near you.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "What fish farming is" from the course "Fish Farming (Aquaculture) Business Basics".

Here's what the lesson says:
Fish farming is like keeping a big aquarium, but the fish are raised to be sold as food. You give them clean water, food and a safe home until they are big enough.

The activity:
Write down which system you could realistically use (pond, cage, tank or aquaponics), what water source you have, and two fish species people already buy near you.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

FAO newsroom, Global fisheries and aquaculture production reaches a new record high (7 June 2024): www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-report-global-fisheries-and-aquacultur
Philippine Statistics Authority, Fisheries Situation Report January to March 2024: psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/fsd/Fisheries%20Situation%20Report%20fo

My notes

I learned this

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