Fish Farm

The Fish farm at 966 Arapahoe...

Was purchased from Crystal Springs Brewery in 1927 along with the water rights to Crystal Springs. During that time, ice ponds were converted to fish rearing runs.

Today, the farm has 7 runs. At any time 3 runs are populated with fish while the others remain empty to accept fish from the other runs during cleaning. It continues to be an electricity-free process with the flow of water coming from collection lines in Crystal Springs to the west of the farm.

Daily operations at the farm are carried out by the current caretaker, Michael Thompson. The fish are fed and minor cleaning takes place. Once every two weeks, the runs containing fish will be drained and cleaned with the fish being moved to the adjacent, clean run before hand. 

The fish raised here are provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and are raised to stock the Evert Pierson Kids Ponds. They're a hybrid species called a Cuttbow (rainbow-cutthroat hybrid) which are bred for their resistance to certain illnesses. Most fish spend a year at the farm with a few spending two years to provide a few bigger fish for the kids ponds.