Fish farm facts for kids

Raising Salmon on the Faroe islands

A fish farm is a place where fish are bred. In most cases, this is done for food. There are two basic types of fish farms:

• Those where the fish are raised in tanks
• Those where fish are raised in specially prepared areas of the oceans, lakes or rivers.

The most common fish species raised by fish farms are salmon, carp, tilapia, catfish and cod.

There are many problems related to fish farming:

• Sometimes fish can escape. This is only an economical impact if the fish also occur naturally, but can have a big impact if they do not.
• The fish in the farms need to be fed, for this other (smaller) fish need to be raised.
• Diseases and parasites may be a problem, because they spread much easier
• Fish farms have a bad effect on the surrounding habitat

Images for kids

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  Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland

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  Controlling roes manually

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  Giant gourami is often raised in cages in central Thailand.

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  These fish-farming ponds were created as a cooperative project in a rural village in the Congo.

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  Aerators in a fish farm (Ararat plain, Armenia)

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  Fish farming in the fjords of southern Chile

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  Houseboat rafts with cages under for rearing fish near Mỹ Tho, Vietnam

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  Transport boats moored at fish processing plant, Mỹ Tho

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  Communal Zapotec fish farm in Ixtlán de Juárez, Mexico

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  Fish farming traditionally takes place in purpose-built tanks in the Skardu region in northern Pakistan.

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  Pisciculture Complex, outside Rio Branco, Brazil