Commercial farms actually raise that many fish, but "top off" the pond. In other words, they harvest the fastest growing fish once those creatures are of marketable size. While the end production numbers may say a pond grew that many fish, there are not that many fish in there at one time. If a farmer is to supply a market, he must have a consistent supply of saleable fish. Most hybrid striper farms don't harvest entire ponds at one time. Regarding the conversion rate, I haven't heard of a farm which gets a pound of fish from less than a pound of food. I can see how that happens though, if a pond raises predator fish such as hybrid striped bass, because the pond can raise forage fish, too. The hybrid stripers eat fish food, and forage fish. Weigh the hsb after growth, compare to the amount of fish food, and the conversion rate can be lower. But, that's deceiving. Assuming the fish only receive pelleted fish food, expect it to take somewhere around two pounds of feed to grow a pound of fish...sometimes more.


Teach a man to grow fish...
He can teach to catch fish...