Mt. Parnell
Fisheries, Inc.
1574 Fort Loudon Rd.
Mercersburg, PA 17236
National Call:
1-800-438-4652
PA & International Call:
1-717-369-3018
Fax:
1-717-369-5714
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| Mt.
Parnell's Recirculating Aquaculture Facility In
the early days of Mt. Parnell Fisheries, things remained
rather steady state and fish were grown, cultured and
harvested the "old fashioned way" . |
Recirculating
Aquaculture Facility |
In 1998, Mt. Parnell broke ground for a 6300 square foot building in order to establish a new method for raising our goldfish indoors. This new system was decided upon after many years of research and operating a small-scale pilot system. The term used for systems of this sort
is |
| Recirculating or Closed loop Aquaculture. Fish that are raised in outdoor earthen ponds have the advantage of existing in a simulated mini Eco-system. We, like all hatcheries, try to create a pond environment that is in many ways similar to the fishes' natural environment. With an indoor system, this cannot be achieved so the fish are grown in a very different manner.
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Recirculating
systems technology is not new but it has improved
dramatically over the past ten years or so. Mt. Parnell
took advantage of these improvements to initiate the
System that we now have.
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| By
November of 1999, we completed the building and the
first 20-tank system. Bringing the fish indoors brought
many new challenges for Mt. Parnell Fisheries. It meant
that the standard methods by which the fish had been
raised outdoors had to be altered to meet the fishes'
needs in an indoor environment.
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| The fish get their start in the outdoor ponds, but are brought in to the indoor tanks while still very tiny. Each tank is stocked with several small, sub-saleable fish. This is when the fish are kicked in to high gear. Once the fish have had a day or two to get used to their new environment, |
Recirculating System Tanks |
| they are introduced to a specialized feed, dispensed via automatic feeders that are controlled by a timer system. The entire building in which the system is housed is temperature controlled. This keeps the water temperature constant for the fish, something that can't be controlled in outdoor ponds, and also helps to maximize the growth potential of the fish.
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System tank showing exceptional
Ryukin Fans ready for sale |
Four filtration devices work to keep the water "clean." These devices filter the water chemically, mechanically, biologically and through gas transfer. The water from the 20 production tanks passes through these filters several times per hour. This "turnover rate" means that no metabolic wastes have a chance to buildup in the tanks containing fish. This clean water |
| is what really allows the fish to thrive in their artificial, indoor environment.
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| The length of time
the fish are kept in the system varies, according to the sizes
that we determine we will need to provide for our customers.
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| When the fish are
ready to be sold, they must go through a "cool-down"
period, since the temperatures they have been raised in while in
the system are considerably higher than the temperatures of the
well water that we use for our holding and shipping facilities.
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| Once the fish are
cooled down, they can be moved over to one of our
holding/staging facilities. Now, with an empty tank available,
the process starts over.
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