From the broodstock selection to the rearing of the juvenile fingerlings right through to the saleable sized fish and delivery we pride ourselves in being at the top of our field.
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Broodstock selection is vital for the maximum egg production and quality
Hormone injections induce the fish to spawn allowing maximum control over egg production
The eggs produced are placed in purpose made incubators, Zuger jars.
After fertilisation you can clearly see the stages of embryo development from the fertilised egg right through to the pin head fry.
The eye lash sized fry are held for up to 10 days in the hatchery and fed on live food until they are ready to be stocked out into the fry ponds.
Once in the ponds the fry are weaned onto a high protein fry diet to enable fast growth.
Just over a month old and the finished product is ready for moving to a bigger home or to be sold.
At Priory Fisheries our aim is to supply top quality farmed reared coarse fish which are sold to a varied base of customers, either fisheries, dealers or other fish farms. To spawn rear and sell 500-750,000 fish per year takes some doing and being one of only a handful of fish farms in the country this low number of farms will reflect how tricky coarse fish production is!
At our farm we have many small ponds with our breeding stock in, these are kept in A1 conditions so that when it comes to spawning time around mid May through to late June our brood stock are fit and ready to produce the next years fish production. All of the brood stock are kept separate, males in one pond and females in the other, this stops them spawning naturally if we get an unexpected hot spell.
The method used for the spawning coarse fish at Priory involves the use of injections of hormone to induce the fish to ovulate (release their eggs) and with the males to produce milt or sperm in synchronisation, this enables the female to be stripped by hand and sperm added to the eggs to fertilize them. A female carp on average will produce 100,000 eggs per kilo body weight! This method allows a greater control over the production of fish eggs and ultimately allows a higher percentage survival of the eggs, fry and then fingerlings. Once the eggs are fertilized by an hour long process of gently stirring and adding a special fertilization solution they are transferred to purpose made incubators (Zuger Jars) here they will stay for 3-3.5 days at a temperature of 23c and which point they hatch and either swim or are transferred to large fry incubators. Here they will stay for anything up too 10 days where they are fed on live food (Artemia) until there are ready to be stocked into carefully prepared fry ponds.
Fry ponds are relatively shallow, i.e. less than 5-6 foot as this allows them to warm up quicker. Our fry ponds are manured before the introduction of the fry to promote the production of zoo plankton such as Daphnia. Once the fry are put into the ponds they will spend the first 2-3 weeks living on these Daphnia, during the last week of this phase we start to feed artificial food as the natural food source will be exhausted and within a couple of weeks the small fry will feed almost exclusively on this artificial food.
The growth of a young fish is very dependant on the food source, nice warm weather and the species; with carp being the quickest and Tench being one of the slowest, a carp will be up to an inch within the first month! As the fish grow they are netted when big enough and re stocked into other ponds to give them more room and to asses' survival. From now on the growth rate is significant and by the late summer the young fish are ready for sale. There is often alot of hype around about how fast peoples fish grow, so all we can say is they grow fast enough to alow a long and healthy life.
Our selling season is all year round but our busiest time starts in late October and continues right through until May in which time we are busy daily with netting, grading and delivering fish of all sizes. Once an order has been placed the fish are harvested from the respected pond and transferred to our holding area where the correct number and size of fish are separated to meet the order. Handling is kept to an absolute minimum with great care taken not to damage the fish between the pond and delivery to the customer.
All of our fish are delivered with an up to date health check, Priory Fisheries is a disease and category 2 parasite free site and always has been, We have regular SVC tests and are free from KHV as we do not bring other fish on to our site or deal in fish. For deliveries to anywhere other than registered fish farms a section 30 consent is required which we will automatically carry out unless otherwise instructed by the customer who will then have to carry out themselves, in this case we must see a copy of the section 30 before the introduction of the fish.
Our delivery service stretches the length and breadth of the UK with fry in the past being sent to the USA by oxygen filled bags. For deliveries we use equipment especially designed for the job in hand and by keeping the harvesting of the fish to the delivery date as short as possible this will ensure your fish reach you in top condition. Delivery charges will incur depending on size of order. (see fish prices)
Due to the demand of certain sizes and species of fish from our farm we now take many orders a year in advance and to further supply exactly what you require we offer a service of contract growing fish to meet the requirements of our customer (Please ring for full details)
We carry five species at Priory Fisheries. We feel these five cover all your angling needs for the stocking of either a match, general or specimen style fishery.
From the broodstock selection to the rearing of the juvenile fingerlings right through to the saleable sized fish and delivery we pride ourselves in being at the top of our field.
All of our fish are measured from the tip of their nose to the end of their tail when sold by the inch and in pounds when by weight.
In our links section we have selected a few companies and fisheries that we deal with on a regular basis.
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