Building a Small Lobster Hatchery here in the Philippines

[jamesmusslewhite]

As this is a four gutter system and I want the factory smooth edge cut against the concrete wall and nailed and the rough cut I made to be up against the wooden outer top rail where it will be hammered over and nailed. I lay out the gutters on a flat area and properly lay out the gutter pieces and line up the gutters to be drilled and riveted together. Organizing everything first helps prevent mistakes later. It is very simple. line up the sheets drill two holes through both gutters which properly line up. Push a rivet through both gutter pieces and then rivet them together. Tedious, time consuming but easy to do.

 

 

I put spacers at each seem where two gutter lengths are riveted together.

 

 

And I rivet the end pieces. Now for the downspouts.

[jamesmusslewhite]

Each gutter will have three down spots and I have learned that trying to fabricate down spots is a real pain in the neck. I found a much easier solution which is rather painless. I simply find the cheapest sink drains I can find. These I purchased at a City Hardware outlet and they cost .99php each and only 12 are needed for this project.

 

I simply use a pair of cutters to remove the plastic guard because they can quickly cause a backup as they clog easily, especially with a nepa roof.

  

simple enough  The sink parts have all I need to attach it to the gutter. I went to a hardware store and purchased 150php of heavy rubber gasket material so I can make additional thick rubber washers to keep for leaking.

 

Add them to the gutters

 

Now time to take the gutters over to the facility and see if they fit properly.

[jamesmusslewhite]

The gutters that I am carrying are three 10 foot lengths riveted together. You will notice that they are light weight but still rigid and strong.

 

And they fit like a glove....

Tomorrow I add the short end piece gutter, rivet to the end and start nailing in place and apply VulcaSeal to all the seems. That will be half of the gutters up and nailed hopefully by noon the carpenter can start adding the nepa while I get the other two gutters ready to hang. Once this is all done I have another raised garden box to build and measure out where all the concrete forms will be poured for the saltwater tanks. 

[jamesmusslewhite]

The garden box is coming along nicely as we add more vegetable plants and seeds. My wife has been working on the remounting of the orchids which we will line the staked orchids completely around the perimeter of the garden box and then hang fish netting tied to the wooden stakes to keep the dogs from lying in the vegetables.

 

 

 

and I should be staring on the next garden box in the next few days, plus in the weeks to follow I will be adding a chicken coop, small rabbit hutch and perhaps even a duck enclosure for the eggs and meat to help stock the freezer. The trick is to eat the rabbits while keeping the chickens and ducks for their eggs. Of course we will eat a few hens once they are mature and have laid eggs for a season or two. I will be building an aquaponic system and greenhouses by next Spring. I will be making double raised beds and use 3/4'' or 1'' PVC pipe as hoops. These will make great greenhouses/rainhouses that are 12 foot wide and over 6 foot high at the crown of the hoops. I use to make them for my retail nursery and groweries as specialty houses for orchids, cuttings/clone etc. I would cover them with 6-mil poly which allowed me to make the hoop houses at 50 foot, 75 foot and 100 foot lengths. All that is needed is to run a strip of chicken wire down the top the length of the greenhouse allowing you to wire the hoops in place and preventing the poly to sag and collect rain during heavy downpours. These three photos are of two of my PVC hoop houses with the poly stripped off before adding a new poly skin. Now these had sides of three stacked railroad ties which gave the roof a height of over 9 feet, now my wife stands just 1/4 inch under 5 foot so you can see the size that a 20 foot length of PVC pipe will give you. Good also for aquaponics, gardening beds, etc. I will be building four PVC rain houses here so I can grown a wide range of staple vegetables and herbs during the long rainy seasons.  

 

 

 

I have done this little trick below on our farm many times before and is something I will be certainly also be doing here as well once we start cutting down the banana tree stalks after the harvest. We will simply load the cut stalks on the boat and bring them here, cut the holes with a corn beef can and fill with top soil and plant a seed. It works really well during the rainy season and helps.with crop production. After harvest time these spent banana stalks are ready for the compost pile.

 

I like to think of them as organic flower pots. You can rack them, place them on hollow block or just set them directly on the ground.

[jamesmusslewhite]

July 18, 2016:

Half the gutters in the facility are now hung and I will have finished fabricating the remaining two sections today and will have them hung by this afternoon. My carpenter friend is nailing the first two gutters in place and applying VulcaSeal to all the seams and the end caps, unions and around the downspouts. We will paint the bottom half of the inside of each gutter which will help prevent rusting from any debris collection or possible standing water, especially being mere meters from ocean waters coming of the Pacific Ocean as it channels it's way through the Surigao Straights.

 

There is a middle column in the center of the wall which is why I decided to use four smaller gutter systems instead of two larger units, but this turned out to be better as it makes it much easier to direct all the roof's water runoff to three areas where I will have water collection barrels. To avoid water flowing down the columns to drain into the structure we simply put up a flash plate to direct this water into the ends of both gutters.

 

The VulcaSeal is easy to apply and dries quickly so once applied it only takes about an hour before we can paint a bottom coat of a primer paint, though really not necessary as these gutters will be cleaned about once a month I still believe in due diligence and I always remember what old Ben Franklin said,''There never seems to be time to do a task right, but always time to have to do that task over.'' And as my step-Pop would say, ''you can spend a dollar trying to save a dime.'' Both I found to be quite true when doing construction task. Measure three times to avoid cutting twice and spend the time to cover all the angles first before you ever start breaking out all the tools.   

 

The gutter will be well supported, to handle the weight of heavy runoff their being nailed directly to the top edge of the roof beam and the length along the concrete walls, but I also have a notched support and a bottom wooden spacer to support the gutters at each rafter which will will take most of the stress load off the nail points and help minimize the gutters rectangular shape when swollen with the weight of heavy rainfall. Some members are living in city areas where structures are tightly built side by side against adjoining walls.Doing this is very useful in that situation as it allows you to maximize potential roof space and still properly channel away rainfall runoff.

 

Well lunch break is over and so I have an appointment with some gutters that need finishing.

[jamesmusslewhite]

July 22, 2016

I will be trying to run all my pumps and aerators on 24v and 12v so I can be as independent from the power grid here as possible. Just had another 2-day long brownout power came on for an hour then off again for another 9 hours. I have been here less than 8 weeks now and have had a 3-day, 2-day and several 8-12 hour brownouts which is unacceptable for raising lobster larvae. I will be using solar panels but they are rather limited for long-term usage because they only recharge their battery bank during the daytime hours and are not as effective on heavy overcast days. This limitation will rear its ugly head during the long rainy season we have here in the Surigao City area. What I do have that seems even more plentiful then the sun source is 'wind', and this wind though it comes and goes fore the most part could be harvested both day and night. I plan on trying to capitalize on this resource by using multiple wind generators along side with the solar array to generate electrical power to charge battery banks. I also have a large saltwater pond which still has three concrete frames where there were previous water gates which has a heavy two-directional water flow as the rising and lowering tide waters channel in and out of the saltwater pond. Now this resource can be relied on even on the darkest of days or windless times and is dependable and predictable and can be harnessed for electrical energy generation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year including Leap Years. Now if I utilize all three of these resources then in theory it could run all the power requirements needs of the daily operation of this facility. In fact the facility could be totally independent of the local power grid. So let me show you why I think that such a goal seems quite feasible at this location.   

The winds here can be far more dependable than solar as they can be utilized to provide electrical power the deep-cell batteries a recharging alternative opportunity during those times (night and heavy overcast) when solar panels are limited. I plan on building quite a few windmill generators but the reality is that there are still times when winds are calm or the windmills must be braked when winds are too excessive during wind storms. The saltwater pond is not restricted by sunlight or winds as the waters rise and lower with the tides which makes it both dependable and predictable like clockwork. I am presently researching on various ways I could possibly design a cost effective 2-directional floating platforms using either horizontal or vertical paddle wheels driving several chain or belt driven generators.

 

I figure that if I use all three sources (solar, wind and tide) to provide the recharging to a bank of deep-cell batteries I could run for long periods of time without the electric power grid. I will still have to have a fuel generator but I would prefer that this generator only be used as a last resort. If I go with this concept I believe that I can also keep monthly operation expenses much lower, when attached to the power grid, as 24v and 12v water pumps and aerators will not use nearly as much power from the grid as would 220v systems. I believe that if I can provide multiple independent recharging sources to my deep-cell batteries, which can provide recharging voltage even at night, that I will not have to be so dependent on a fuel generator and the expense of fuel during long periods of constant usage. Fuel generators are also susceptible to breakdowns and their operation means high fuel costs and requires large fuel storage, and a second backup generator would need to be purchased ans maintained.

 

All these systems will require multiple redundant sensors and alarms, plus redundant sensors and alarms on all my saltwater tanks to insure consistent water flow rates and insure there or no overflows or tank dry-outs in the saltwater tanks or the concrete sumps tanks. I have little knowledge on the subject so expect that I will be boring you constantly with long PM’s full of stupid questions on various sensors and alarms as they will be a necessity in the facility.

[jamesmusslewhite]

 

Lobster hatcheries can be a huge investment  This one is a prototype that I have been planning for the last five years. I have tried to design and streamline expensive equipment and complex processes to their simplest forms where they can be manufactured out of commonly found items.  and at considerably less cost. This venture being a prototype means everything about it will be both a work and learning progress. I have nothing to gauge the overall costs to complete the construction of this facility and all the associated equipment, and even when that is done I have to insure my closed-circulation system and filtration is adequate and easy to monitor and maintain. This facility as it stands when built will be capable to house in grow-out trays 57,600 Stage IV lobster larvae per crop. The real trick is being able produce several crops a year. I have to have the right food sources, in the right volumes, at the right time every time and logistically insure 4 feeding cycles daily. One slip up, screw up or miscalculation and I could have massive or even catastrophic die-outs within hours or days. There is a lot of things that must be known first before one even tries to build a facility to avoid being chained to a money pit. I am keeping tight records and writing everything down and once I know that my designs are sound, that my processes are sound and that I have a successful consistent repeatable production that can make the facility profitable; then and only then I will release all the information needed to duplicate this facility and process in a reference book form and training videos. To be truthful until that time I will be keeping my cards rather close to the chest with much information purposely omitted. This is to avoid some lazy-ass plagiarizing wanker trying to capitalize on my years of personal research and countless hours of designs and drawing to push their own book  When the time comes that I do release the book it will also have all my charts, grafts, blueprints, feed recipes, complete parts list, projected startup costs, training videos, etc.

 

If I am right then this facility will be able to consistently produce 3 crops of (57,600) Stage IV lobster larvae a year totaling upwards of 172,800 lobster fingerlings when in full production. This in a facility with the floor space of only 32 foot x 65 foot in size. With a moderate expansion cost to build a enclosure to house additional grow-out racks for Stage !V lobster larvae it could be quite possible to double, triple, quadruple the Stage IV lobster larvae production using the same initial production equipment. 

 

One thing you will encounter when trying to find investors or a partner in such a venture is just how widely ill-informed the belief is that it is somehow impossible to breed ornate spiny lobsters in captivity. It is well documented that a Kiwi facility used one breeding pair of adult lobster. Their records show the female mated 3 times in one year releasing 1.6 million fertile eggs of which successfully produced 1.1 million larvae. My production model will be permanently housing 5 mature females and 3 mature males which should be adequate with the proper maintaining of water temperature, lighting and diet controls to insure three productive production cycles yearly. The real trick is continually keeping the larvae fat and happy so they do not eat each other.

[jamesmusslewhite]

The small saltwater pond has three areas where there use to be concrete water gates, only one is still open to the water. The other two are on the opposite side of this one and though now landlocked both only require a trench of less than 60 feet to open them to the waters seawater. This means I have 3 different entry and exit points for rising tide waters and receding tidal flows. I plan on exploiting this potential electrical power generating resource. The way I see it is simple. Some times the day is heavenly overcast and at night it is dark, both are a hindrance when dealing with being dependent on solar power. 

Now we have nice sea breezes here and they can be used both day and night to generate electrical power, but there are those times when the breeze just too soft. This is also a hindrance.

But the tides are like clockwork, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year including Leap Year, so if I can harness it's potential, along with that of wind-generation to coincide with a solar array and then use 12v and 24v water pumps, aerators and lighting then I could theoretically function completely off a local electrical grid.

This is one of the concrete gates.

The gates stand well over 6 feet in height so at high tide the water level through the gate is three to four foot.

The following YouTube videos show in more detail the gates and rate of water flow through the gate. I hope it helps answer any questions you might have. I am open for any good concepts to utilize this free resource.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jamesmusslewhite]

Stage I thru Stage III larvae do not have the developed mouth structures yet and have difficulty feeding on fleshy tissue and must be fed a softer easier to consume food source like brine shrimp, planktonic copepods, rotifers and algae. This mixture is added directly into the water they are circulating in, in the hope that they desire the live soup mixture more than they do each other as they are a voracious cannibalistic little sea bug. I just have to keep moving them from one circulating container to the next in a constant rotation every few days. This is so they can be relocated to a fresh larva cone container with the abundant food source prepared before they can totally deplete the last larva cone and start looking at their fellow brothers and sisters as yum-yums. If this happens than they will quickly diminish their numbers. These sea bugs are like 'Highlander' because they have a ''there can only be one!' mentality when they get hungry..  

 

Now for the Stage IV larvae they have developed a mouth which allows then to eat more solid foods, but fleshy fed still needs to be mixed with soft protein sources until they have had time to develop into latent Stage IV larvae. Very much like human babies where they progress from milk to soft foods and then to solids. Research has found that dry feeds or not a viable option as the lobster will only feed on a dry mix for a very short time before losing interest. I have seen figures which suggest the 80% of dry mixes are not eaten and become waste and a contaminant to the ecology. This waste would unnecessarily tax the filtration systems, cause raises the ammonia levels and even alter pH levels which is simply unacceptable in a closed-circulation system. It is also counterproductive in the development of the larvae as well as being an unnecessary wasted expense. I will be only using live and fresh proteins and fats in my feed mixture. This is to insure the larvae will get a well balanced diet in a form that is appealing and easy to ingest. The feed will be prepared the evening before.

It is a mixture of finely minced fish, assorted mussels, squid, ground dehydrated boiled yellow squash, unprocessed coconut flour, fresh ground earthworms which will then be mixed together with fish oil and unprocessed cold-process coconut oil added. The consistency will be more like dry ground hamburger or dough. A measured portion is then placed in an extruder box I have designed. It is basically a small stainless steel lined plywood box with a turn screw mounted on the back side of the box. When turned it will press the feed mixture through a wire screen. As the mix is pressed through the wire screen it will cut and extrude the dough mix into small even size portions. A sharp mason trowl will be used to cut the extruded portions into even lengths.

A baking sheet is placed under the extruding side of the box to collect the falling cut pieces, These pieces are gently spread on the surface of the baking sheet until the sheet is full. When full the sheet is replaced with a fresh sheet and the full sheets placed on refrigerator racks. The full sheets are simply refrigerated until it is ready to be used during feedings. The size of the portions will be about the size of a small rabbit fed pellet. The worker will carry the sheet to the Stage IV rearing rack where they will place a single pellet in each of the 12 Ping Pong ball halves attached to a stick, they will stick the stick into the rack over the next row of 12 larvae cups, turn and tap. There are a total of 48 rows of 12 per tray and five trays to a rack and 20 racks (57,600 Stage IV larvae) requiring feeding four times daily. I chose the Ping Pong concept as they are the right size, bright white making it easy to see and pellet that was not dispensed and should be easy to clean.   

[jamesmusslewhite]

The Stage IV larvae will be housed in marine plywood trays that are 8 foot long x 25 foot wide and 6 inches high. Then the trays are stacked 5 trays high in a bamboo rack. I will be using plastic egg crate that has 2 inch x 2 inch openings. I will use a small paint roller to apply epoxy to one side of the plastic sheets of egg crate then stretch weave-meshed shade cloth over the tot of the egg crate sheets. Once the epoxy is set I will trim the outer edges of the egg crate sheets. These sheets will then be flipped over giving me a sheet of 2 inch x 2 inch compartments that will allow water and aeration through the weaved-mesh bottom. The egg crate sheets will sit directly on PVC spacers allowing the egg crate to rest flat at a half level waterline. There will only be approximately a 12 inch clearance between the wooden trays. These racks of 5 trays will stand about six feet tall and there will only be a spacing of about 2 feet between each bamboo rack. Very tight spacing, but necessary to allow as many Stage IV lobster larvae to be housed within the defined space inside this facility. 

Each tray will house 12 larvae in a row with 48 rows per tray, so 570 larvae per tray. There are 5 trays per bamboo rack so each rack houses 2,880 larvae per rack. There are a total of 20 racks in the facility so my capacity is 57,600 Stage IV larvae per crop with this particular setup. Very tight confines with little wiggle room. Later we will build another out building to specialize in housing more tray racks. A female ornate spiny lobsters can easily release more than 300,000 larvae at one spawning cycle, I have seen figures showing upwards of 400,000 viable fertilized eggs being released during a spawning cycle. One Kiwi facility documented the number of eggs released by a single two year old female who was induced to have 3 mating cycles in a one year period, which exceeded the release totaling over 1.6 million eggs of with 1.1 million larvae hatched.   

The issue with automating the feeding is the trays being in tightly spaced racks which will require heavy bracing due to two factors, water weight and possible earthquakes  Each plywood tray holds (approx.) 89 gallons of water so each rack will be basically 538 gallons on a frame that is 6 feet tall and only 2 feet wide  which will certainly wiggle and dance during an earthquake, and in the almost eight years I have lived here in this area I have seen some good jerkers. I will have to use floor mounting bolts as well as support cables attached to the roof beams. There is little space between the racks and between the two rows of racks. There will be little spacing to be trying to hand crank a moist mix, insure even portions and insuring each larvae receives a portion. This is why I opted to do the extrusion in an open area well before feedings. The stick method I will be using many not be pretty but it is simple and should insure accountability and at least a small amount of quality control.

I am open to suggestions but I would have to at least see a rough drawing of a working concept to fully understand what you envision as a solution. These are some rough drafts of the floor plan revision, Stage !V lobster larvae rack and the plastic 2'' x 2'' egg crate.

I had to alter the spacing of the two rows of heavy saltwater tanks due to a mistake in measurement. I had to remove one of the tanks and opt to put three in a row in front of the facility. Even doing this really does not allow much spacing between the trays and between the two rows of trays. On the right side two of my reserve tanks will stand almost 6 feet in height with only a two foot spacing from the larvae racks. or from the larvae pots lining the left side wall. This is required to try to maximize the possible production output from the facility.

 

Egg crate configuration for each wooden larvae tray

Stage IV larvae rack configuration

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite