Any ideas on how a person could use an old fish farm to make money?

Question

My family used to run a goldfish farm. There are 12 ponds, 8 on one side, 4 on the other, divided by a large gulley, and another pond at each end. When we would empty the ponds and sain them, the water would flow to either one of the end ponds, which also served as personal bass ponds. Out of the 14 ponds total, there is 1 that still has water and fish in it. The rest have dried up&have some trees and CRP grass growing in them. My grandfather told my uncle and I that they were ours to do with as we wanted. I started to do some restoration work when my grandfather told me he had given up the water rights to do anything commercial with the ponds since it cost so much each year and they haven't used for a good about 10 years. He said he kept enough to keep using our one bass pond. Each pond covers 3-4 acres I'm guessing. I would like to come up with an idea on how to use them to make some money. They put app.$250,000 into building them and it just sits there going to waste.

In response to the first answer, goldfish are raised for another major reason besides decoration. Bait for other fish. They also eat mosquito larvae. True, other species of fish would have a better return, but will they be able to handle a harsh winter as good, be as low maintenance, and will they require having other fish there to feed on? We fed our fish manufactured pellets. The type of fish was never the problem. We had one buyer that would take as many as we could produce in those 12 ponds. It made a lot of money. The reason it was shut down was my dad and uncle, being competitive and childish, couldn't come to an agreement about who, if anybody, was in charge. And you obviously didn't read the part about me saying that we no longer have the water rights to restock those ponds for commercial usage like that. It would take a good chunk of money to get those water rights back, and there's no way I can come up with it.

Answer 1

You should try to breed other fish than goldfish, f.i. trout, make it a troutfarm, if that is possible in those ponds.
You might try to figure out what kind of fish will give you the best price on the market, that won't be goldfish I think. Goldfish is only for decoration of gardenponds, you can't eat them. I wish you success, maybe it'll become a goldmine one day, who knows?

Answer 2

I believe that if they are all yours, no legal problems, Without water available, filling them in is a good possibility; But, I think that if you were serious about ponds, and you can locate a working pardner with some Credit or Cash, I have enough faith in your idea to say you might just have the makings of a modern day businessman. Keep the Faith. God Bless and Good Luck !!

Answer 3

Can you dig a well and get your own water? I don't quite know how water rights work. But if you could, maybe you could operate a trout or carp farm for city slickers to fish in? Another idea would be to contact the state fisheries department and see if you can somehow operate a hatchery for some species?