Stoutland family raises goldfish and koi for nearly 100 years
photos by Sara Schafer and Ricki Spargo
Orders are flying in — six comet goldfish headed to North Carolina, 20 boxes of butterfly koi destined for California and 250 rosie red minnows wanted in Texas. The orders start a synchronized dance for the team at Ozark Fisheries.
Dwaine grabs a bucket and heads to a raceway teeming with fish to hand pick each order. The chosen fish are transferred to a metal holding can and box prep begins. The computer system has processed the quantity and size of fish, as well as the destination. Martín places a plastic bag in a cardboard box, adds water and sends it down the conveyor belt. Next, the fish are added to the box and Mario adds hospital-grade oxygen. Miguel uses a machine to clamp the bag shut. The box is sealed, and it will soon be picked up by UPS or FedEx. In less than 24 hours, customers will welcome new fishy friends to their homes — courtesy of a legendary farm in Stoutland.
To move fish from the tank truck to the holding tanks, the team deploys a custom-made “fish waterslide,” which uses a pipe and gravity to transfer the fish quickly and in a low-stress way.
Welcome to Ozark Fisheries, a family-owned business that specializes in ornamental goldfish and koi. The farm started in 1926 as a trout hatchery owned by F. Lawrence Bailliere and Dr. Charles A. Furrow. In the early 1920s, goldfish became a popular fish, as major chain stores added pet departments filled with aquariums of the then-exotic fish. The pair wanted to meet that demand.
The partners converted their trout raceways to goldfish ponds, moving soil with horse teams, wheelbarrows and shovels. They brought in a Japanese fish biologist, Roy Nakashima, who specialized in goldfish. In late 1928, they sold three shipments totaling 1,035 goldfish for $55.50.
With that, Ozark Fisheries became an ornamental fish farm. Through the decades the farm’s goldfish and koi production exploded, and new generations of family members joined the business. Today the operation is run by the third and fourth generation of fish farmers, including Larry Cleveland, a grandson of Lawrence, as well as his children, Margaret and Joseph Cleveland.
The team can ship 500 boxes of live fish per day; they select the fish from several holding tanks.
With its roots back to the 1920s, Ozark Fisheries is one of the original commercial members of Laclede Electric Cooperative. “If we weren’t the first, we’re probably the only one that’s still in business,” Larry says.
While the farm has deep roots in Missouri, Ozark Fisheries has a second location in Martinsville, Indiana. In 1970, the operation purchased its biggest competitor, Grassyfork Fisheries, which is the oldest, continuously operated private fish farm in the U.S. Joseph runs the Indiana operation, and Margaret is taking the lead in Missouri, as they apprentice with their father.
An underwater view shows the variety of color in this tank of koi.
The sheer volume produced by Ozark Fisheries is almost unbelievable. The Missouri farm covers 7,000 contiguous acres and 300 ponds filled with millions of fish. “Everyone defines ponds and lakes differently,” Margaret says. “My definition is anything less than 5 acres is a pond and anything bigger than 5 acres is a lake.”
For years the team would breed fish in ponds, but that left the fish at the mercy of Mother Nature. Twenty years ago, they repurposed a building with tanks to spawn fish in outdoor raceways and bring eggs inside to hatch.
“With controlled water temperature and oxygen, the eggs will hatch like clockwork in three days, and then we take them outside to stock fresh ponds,” Margaret says. “A fry (baby fish) is the size of your eyelash, so a lot of times you can’t see them in a pond for a good 30 to 40 days. On average, we stock 1 million fry per 1 acre of water. We raise less than 40% of them to a sellable size.”
The team hatches fish eggs in large tanks indoors. One tank can hold 350,000 eggs. A mature goldfish can lay 20,000 eggs per season, and a mature koi can lay 200,000. “Our spawning and selling seasons are at the same time,” Margaret says. “So, it’s like having planting and harvesting at the same time. We are really busy in April, May and June.”
Once in the ponds, the team drives a modified feed truck down the pond levees, blowing feed into the ponds. “The fish have learned the sound of our feed truck blower,” Margaret says. “The koi associate the loud sound and vibration with being fed. They won’t respond and swim toward a gas truck, but if I’m driving the lawn mower, they’ll come across the pond to me.”
Baby fish receive a fine powder feed, while adult fish receive a larger sinking feed. “We feed sinking pellets, so the fish go down in the water,” she says. “While we love to see the fish at the top, if we can see them, so can predators. We don’t want them visible from above.”
The team can ship 500 boxes of live fish per day; they select the fish from several holding tanks.
Once the fish reach their ideal size and color, the team uses a seine or large net to catch the fish. The team drags the net through the water and slowly a big red ball of fish is inside the net and can be bucketed out.
“Our fish spend 99% of their lives in dirt ponds, but when they are ready to sell, we transport them to our raceways to be shipped,” Margaret says. “We use live-haul tank trucks to move our fish, and we use a custom-made ‘fish waterslide’ to move from the truck into their tanks so we don’t stress the fish.”
Ozark Fisheries produces five types of goldfish (common, sarasa, shubunkin, white common and red and calico fantails); two types of koi (standard and butterfly fin), as well as a handful of other critters, including minnows, crayfish, bullfrog tadpoles and trapdoor snails.
“Common goldfish is our bread-and-butter fish, and we raise the largest number of these fish,” Margaret says. “Most of them are sold at the inch or 2-inch size.”
The farm is home to 300 fish ponds and six artesian springs, which produce water at 58 degrees.
Through the years, Ozark Fisheries has found efficiencies in production and customer service. In fact, they were one of the first fish farms to ship fish in a cardboard box. In the 1950s they moved away from shipping fish in a metal container on the railroad to shipping in a cardboard box with plastic bags, water and pure oxygen.
Fish farming requires a hardworking crew. The Missouri farm employs 20 team members, many of whom have worked for decades at the farm. Ozark Fisheries also utilizes the H-2A agricultural worker program for extra help during the busy season.
Beyond the fish, the business includes a cow-calf Angus operation called Circle F Cattle Company (the Circle is for the O in Ozark and the F is for Fisheries). “Some years the fish do really well; sometimes the cattle do really well,” Margaret says. “So having that diversity really helps.”
As the fish market has evolved, the family has matched demand. Ozark Fisheries delivers large wholesale orders to distributors and pet supply businesses. In 2017, they started an e-Commerce site, Toledo Goldfish, for customers to order small quantities of fish for their home aquariums or koi ponds. This type of innovation is what has made this family business thrive for nearly 100 years.
To learn more about Ozark Fisheries or Toledo Goldfish, visit www.ozarkfisheries.com or www.toledogoldfish.com.