About Pond and Profits

Pond and Profits is a practical aquaculture resource built around one observation: there is a large gap between the romanticized version of fish farming that appears in sustainability media and the operational reality of producing fish profitably on a small to medium scale. That gap produces farmers who start operations without adequate preparation and close them within two or three years, often having learned the hard lessons that better information would have prevented.

My name is Marcus Holland. I grew up on a row crop farm in western Kentucky and came to aquaculture through a circuitous route: a biology degree, a decade working in fisheries management for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and eventually the decision to apply what I had learned about fish biology and water quality management to a production operation of my own. I currently operate a two-acre catfish pond and a small tilapia greenhouse operation that sells through a local farmers market and a small restaurant account. I am not a wealthy success story. I am a working fish farmer who is learning something new every season and who thinks that honest, specific information serves beginning producers better than aspirational marketing.

What We Cover

Species selection and production requirements, presented honestly rather than optimistically. Water quality management, which is where most production problems originate and where most guides skim over the details that actually matter. Infrastructure design and construction, with enough engineering specificity to prevent the most common and expensive design errors. Fish health and disease management, because disease will happen and knowing what you are looking at determines whether you manage through it or lose your production to it. Business and marketing, because the fish you cannot sell at a profitable price are not a successful crop regardless of how well they were grown.

Questions and corrections: editor@pondandprofits.com