Regardless of the species you choose, you’ll need to order your first set of fish fry or fingerlings from a local hatchery or aquaculture supply service. Even if you plan to set up spawning tanks or encourage natural reproduction within the growing tanks, you’ll need at least an initial supply to get your business started. Selecting the right supplier is tricky when you’re new to the world of fish and aquaculture, but there are a few common guidelines to picking the right company.

Check Legality First

Before placing any orders or even shopping around for fish fingerling and fry prices, check your state’s restrictions on aquaculture. Each state sets its own rules about fish species that are legal to raise and sell, both for personal use and commercial sale. Just because a species is legal to own in a backyard pond doesn’t make it legal to breed, raise and sell in your state. You never want to find out about the legality of a fish species only after making a large purchase, as suppliers don’t accept returns and often won’t cancel orders in process.

Make Contact with Ornamental or Edible Hatcheries

In general, fish hatcheries focus on either ornamental or edible species and many only hatch one or two primary varieties. Check the minimum orders before assuming a large-scale hatchery is right for even the largest aquaponics system. Most first orders are only in the low hundreds, as it’s best to stock new tanks to 25% at first, then add more fish by the quarters until reaching 100% stock density. A facility that requires you to purchase thousands or tens of thousands of fingerlings at once may not work well, except for the very largest commercial aquaponics systems.

Choosing Between Fry and Fishlings

The fish used in aquaponics have four general life stages:

• Fry; which is the smallest stage immediately after hatching.
• Fingerling; which is when the fish reaches a few inches in length and is growing rapidly.
• Juvenile; when the fish starts to reach lengths of four to six inches, develops more adult features like scales, and may reach sexual maturity in some species.
• Adult; at which point the fish will eventually reach its full weight and may reproduce if conditions are right.

Fish stock is brought into an aquaponics system at either the fry or fingerling stage. Fry is less expensive and easy to transport due to its compact size. Yet, at this stage, they are easily shocked and require a very fine crumble feed to be dispensed every few hours. Small fluctuations in water quality and temperature are more likely to kill fry as well. Fingerlings are more expensive and can take up a lot of space to transport safely, but they are hardier and grow much faster. They’re also large enough to eat the same pelleted feed or carnivorous foods you’ll be feeding the fish until they’re adults. In general, most commercial aquaponics businesses should stick with fingerlings unless they want to produce their own fry or buy fry in bulk and become a reseller of fingerlings to other companies.