Ideal Fish, once one of the major players in Waterbury’s manufacturing scene, quietly terminated their fish production a few months ago. The company, which operated under Greater American Aquaculture LLC, ran an indoor fish farm that raised European seabass in a land-based facility in the Brass City, and ceased fish production in 2024.

In the description of a 2021 promotional video from the City of Waterbury, Ideal Fish is called “one of Waterbury’s top manufacturers.” Flash forward four years, and Greater American Aquaculture is being split up and acquired by private investors – closing their only location less than 10 years after the company opened the Waterbury facility and only 7 years after they started selling fish. 

Despite the excitement surrounding Ideal Fish when they first expressed interest in Waterbury in 2016, even the company’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the time, Eric Pedersen, openly questioned the long-term feasibility of its operations.

Today, the former Ideal Fish building sits empty, and allegations have been made of stolen equipment and unmet financial obligations to make taxpayers whole.

Ideal Fish was once among the most hyped companies in American aquaculture.

Between 2018 and 2024, the company was profiled and praised by the City of Waterbury, Connecticut Sea Grant and the Connecticut Small Business Development Center. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture even made a press release to commemorate its first commercial harvest in 2018.

State and city officials weren’t the only fans of Ideal Fish. 

The company and its leadership were profiled by various state and national news organizations, including the New York Times.

Part of their allure was new technology that offered an alternative to the traditional methods of farming fish in net pens in the ocean. The primary method used to raise European seabass—which cannot be caught in the wild due to low population numbers—involves marine pens that are close to the shore, and may contribute to the degradation of surrounding habitats.

Not only that, farmed fish in ocean pens are highly susceptible to diseases, parasites and may consume chemical runoff. They are often fed antibiotics, and many health officials have raised concerns that consuming these fish could be harmful to humans.

Ideal Fish used Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) to raise their fish. RAS is a relatively new fish farming technology that was first implemented commercially a little over a decade ago. RAS uses above-ground pens where water is continuously cycled and sanitized, which in theory eliminates the need for antibiotics and allows farmers to have greater control over the fish’s development. 

There are only a handful of RAS farms in the world, and Ideal Fish operated the only RAS farm in the United States that raised European seabass, commonly called branzino, which is a high-value fish often sold in Italian and Greek restaurants. 

In a 2016 interview with Aquaculture North America, then CEO Pederson said, “Our objective is to work together to develop scalable and replicable RAS systems and go-to-market strategies that give fish producers a better shot at economic viability.” In that same article, Pedersen talked about the financial difficulties of land-based aquaculture models in general, and RAS in particular.

“We have a huge problem in this country with respect to land-based aquaculture,” Pederson told Aquaculture North America in 2016. “There is not capital that is easily available for this because there are no good viable economic models. And because there are no models there is not capital, so no one can develop a viable economic model. So we are in a holding pattern. I am fortunate that I have been able to find a number of motivated investors and I have partnered with Pentair.”

Andy Russell, the current chief operating officer and treasurer of Ideal Fish, spoke with Inside Investigator on July 1, in a phone call that lasted less than 7 minutes. He told Inside Investigator that, from the start, the company was working to construct a proof-of-concept facility in Waterbury. The goal was to prove that branzino could be raised on land with RAS. 

Funding for their emerging technology was spearheaded by Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems, which is a part of the water treatment corporation Pentair. Pentair also provided the equipment needed to set up the farm. In a shorter follow-up conversation on July 22, Russell refused to answer questions about how much money Pentair invested. He said it was a “private matter.” Pentair could not be reached for questions.

Pentair invests large amounts of money into exploring versatile uses of its technology, ranging from filtration systems in aquariums to home water softening and filtration. It used to have a large aquaculture portfolio before completely divesting in the industry in 2019.  

Once Ideal Fish started selling fish in 2018, the company sold more than 300,000 pounds of fish a year for multiple years. The company further expanded by partnering with “sister farms” and selling salmon, trout and barramundi, according to Russell. 

Around this time, other RAS farms started popping up across the country, mostly selling salmon. Like ideal fish, these farms received accolades from conservation companies and praise in the media. They also had an uphill battle for financial security and many of them eventually went under.  

Ideal Fish’s Founder, Eric Pedersen, was aware of the company’s risks from the start.

“Pentair’s engagement gives this venture a tremendous advantage, although all of their assistance is at arms-length, market-basis,” Pederson told Aquaculture North America in 2016. “Our success has to reflect economic realities.”

In his interview with Aquaculture North America, Pedersen said he studied the technology at an RAS facility in Greenport, New York. That facility, run by a company called Local Ocean, was purportedly the first RAS fish farm in the world. It closed only months after it was scheduled to start selling its fish commercially. 

There were a lot of complicating factors with the Local Ocean facility. For starters, it was entangled in multiple lawsuits with an Israeli company over alleged intellectual property infringement. These lawsuits were settled less than a year before the company closed. 

Not only that, but Local Ocean was in a competitive location. There were two local fishing fleets nearby: the larger Montauk fleet and the smaller, but local, Greenport fleet. 

However, Pedersen saw a larger, overarching problem with Local Ocean, which impacted all the RAS farms he had studied: “Ultimately these companies failed because they ran out of money.  Although the reasons for this tend to vary from company to company, one common reason is undercapitalization. I have tried to avoid this as much as possible,” he told Aquaculture North America.

Part of that avoidance strategy, according to Waterbury Economic Development Director Joe McGrath, was Ideal Fish’s choice of location. “The reason why they chose Waterbury is because of our location between Washington and Boston, so that they could get their product freshly delivered to restaurants and markets within a day.”

The old button factory they chose in Waterbury was at 64 Avenue of Industry. Waterbury is rich in water, which is one of the most important resources for RAS farms.  There are multiple aquifers and reservoirs near Waterbury, and the city has substantially lower water rates than other major metros in the state, including Hartford and New Haven. 

That did not, however, address the cost concerns. RAS farming is more expensive than the more common open ocean net farms, and, consequently, their fish cost more. Pedersen had stated multiple times to various media outlets and industry publications that the benefit of Ideal Fish’s product was in its freshness. 

Unlike the majority of branzino, which is raised in fish farms in the Mediterranean and must be shipped from restaurants overseas, Ideal Fish’s product could be delivered in a single day.

However, it is not easy to raise a fish on land. 

The healthiest farmed fish are raised in environments that mimic their species’ natural lifecycle. 

In the wild, European seabass are slow-growing. They are born near the coast and usually spend the first four to five years of their lives in shallow waters. Mature fish will then spend five to six years migrating between feeding and spawning grounds, swimming between the open ocean and closer to the shore. It can take up to seven years for a fish to fully mature, and they can live upwards of 20 years. 

To simulate these different phases of life, RAS farms control the temperatures and oxygen levels of water. By manipulating these factors, farmers can control how fish develop. Controlling the environment can make a fish reach sexual maturity earlier, meaning they can be sold at a younger age. Temperature and sexual maturity also impact how efficiently fish metabolize food, reducing the long-term costs of feed. 

Proponents say that this setup not only limits the need for antibiotics, as the water is sanitized during cycles, but it minimizes environmental damage and reuses water. In contrast, most branzino sold in the United States originates from marine pens near coasts in the Mediterranean Sea. These pens have been known to damage the surrounding habitats and can be located close to areas with chemical runoff or other pollutants. 

While there is a debate over whether the energy trade-off makes RAS farming systems more eco-friendly than other types of fish farms, what is not up for debate is that the energy-intensive model is expensive. 

Ideal Fish was not the only company that had to grapple with the economically unsustainable model. In December 2024, AquaBounty Technologies decided to shut down a salmon RAS farm in Ohio and cull its remaining fish. LocalCoho, another RAS salmon farm, this one based out of the Finger Lakes region in New York state, closed in January of this year. 

Like Ideal Fish, LocalCoho was also profiled by BAP and given the highest rating on the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. From their start, Ideal Fish was faced with overcoming the higher costs that came with emerging RAS technology.

As Ideal Fish continued to refine their RAS system, they were routinely receiving praise and accolades: Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), which is the only aquaculture certification program in the world, highlighted Ideal Fish’s facility. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch ranked RAS technology as the “best choice” for a supply of European seabass. Although Seafood Watch did not name Ideal Fish directly, it was one of two RAS farms that raised branzino in the world. 

But things weren’t going as swimmingly behind the scenes. 

In 2019, Pentair pulled out. 

The issue wasn’t Ideal Fish in particular, but instead a change in corporate strategy. Pentair closed their Aquatic Eco-Systems business and ended all aquaculture investments. Ideal Fish was one of the 130 locations Pentair pulled away from.

When Pentair left, many other investors followed, according to Russell. Despite this, Ideal Fish promised a massive expansion when applying for a small business loan in 2020, and Waterbury economic officials were thrilled. 

But, according to Waterbury Economic Development Director Joe McGrath, expansion may not have been an internal decision. 

“They had a change in their corporate investors, and these new investors were the ones that wanted to expand Ideal Fish,” McGrath said. 

In 2020, Ideal Fish applied for and received a taxpayer funded $175,000 Small Business Express loan “for machinery & equipment” from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), DECD’s Director of Communications Jim Watson wrote in an email. “Per our contract, the company was to create 7 employment positions and retain 5.”

Inside Investigator could not confirm if Ideal Fish hired more employees. Russell refused to answer questions about how many employees Ideal Fish had. 

In 2018, Pedersen told the New York Times that Ideal Fish would sell around 350,000 pounds of branzino per year, and in 2019, a representative from the company told Aquaculture North America that it was on track to sell around 385,000 pounds. Near the end of 2021, Pederson reported to Sea Grant that the company was on track to sell around 300,000 branzino fish that year. With each fish weighing around one-and-one-quarter pounds at time of harvest, that would be around 375,000 pounds.

In October 2021, Pedersen stated that the company wanted to expand its operations massively. He told Sea Grant he wanted to build an additional facility and up production to raise 2.4 million branzino a year—an eightfold increase.  

Russell told Inside Investigator that he could not “disclose” how much branzino Ideal Fish produced.

“Their plan was to extend their footprint and offer more services from the company perspective, which would be like packaging building, slicing of the fish and… additional marketing, which they could not do in the facility they were in currently,” McGrath told Inside Investigator. “It was also going to add additional jobs when they were done with the total project that they anticipated doing.”

Ideal Fish even entered negotiations to buy or lease the old Anamet brass factory in Waterbury, but talks fell through in 2023 after Ideal Fish leaders failed to produce necessary documentation by the city’s deadline.

Their new investors did not stick around, according to Russell. He was not clear about the timeline of events.

According to reporting by the Hartford Business Journal, it was around this time that Ideal Fish stopped paying rent. Eventually, the company broke its lease and, when they moved out, allegedly stole equipment from the rented facility.

The property owner, Mark Drouin, told the Waterbury Police Department that around $100,000 to $200,000 worth of equipment was stolen, according to the police report. When an officer visited the site, he confirmed that equipment was missing. However, Drouin and Russell gave conflicting statements about the contents of the lease-break agreement. Because of that, it was deemed a civil matter.

In an interview with Hartford Business Journal, Drouin said he chose not to pursue a civil lawsuit because he thought a legal battle would be too costly. He said that, between the missed rent payments and allegedly-stolen equipment, he lost more than $2 million.

Russell did not comment on the situation, except to say that there were no charges brought against Ideal Fish.

“We came to an agreement terminating our lease with the landlord, and that’s all there is to it,” Russell said.

Russell did not respond to questions about missed rent payments. He did say that Ideal Fish only took equipment that was agreed upon in the lease termination contract.

Russell told Inside Investigator that Ideal Fish closed its Waterbury facility in late 2024 and is in the process of dissolving its assets and being acquired by private investors. He would not disclose who those investors were.

Ideal Fish maintains its headquarters in Norwalk and is currently selling off its leftover inventory of fish dips, which is being stored in a rented warehouse in Southington, according to Russell.

As of July 8, 2025, Ideal Fish had an outstanding balance of $130,186 for its Small Business Express loan, and $13,079 was past due, according to Watson.

On July 22, Russell said that Ideal Fish is currently “in discussions” with the DECD about the loan.

Ideal Fish is one of several manufacturing companies that have recently closed facilities in the state. 

In February, Rheem Manufacturing, an Atlanta-based air and water-heater company, announced the shuttering of a facility in Waterbury, laying off 76 people. That same month, steel manufacturer Rex Forge announced plans to close its factory in Southington, laying off around 100 people. 

The Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL) reported that manufacturing jobs decreased by almost 2.3% between May 2024 and May 2025, while overall employment in the state remained steady. In Waterbury, there was a 3.8% decrease in manufacturing jobs over that same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

For decades now, efforts have been made by both government officials and private sector leaders to revitalize the states’ manufacturing industry, which used to employ hundreds of thousands of people. Now, although production has increased in the state, data shows employment numbers have remained steady, at around 150,000 jobs—half the size of the workforce in the early 1990s. 

Although Connecticut officials’ most recent Manufacturing Strategic Plan emphasizes growing the workforce, the goal isn’t to create new jobs, but rather to fill existing vacancies. Even though manufacturing remains one of the largest industries in the state by economic output, state officials have abandoned long-term goals of substantial employment growth.

In November, Connecticut Manufacturing Chief Paul Lavoie told Inside Investigator, “to think that we’re going to have job growth is a fool’s errand.”

Old industrial sites pose unique challenges for city decision makers. Empty factories are not just an eyesore—they often contain hazardous and toxic materials that need to be cleaned up in a safe and responsible way before being repurposed for other companies or uses. 

Since 2014, the City of Waterbury has tried to integrate cleaning up these old facilities with revitalizing the downtown area.  

It’s been two years since the negotiations with Ideal Fish for the redevelopment of the Anamet building fell through, and the city is still looking for a development partner. Presently, the city has still not found one. In April, CT Insider reported that the city was having discussions with an unnamed developer. 

Even without an active partner, the process of revitalization is still moving forward.

In April, the State Bond Commission allocated $5.3 million to go toward cleaning up the former brass manufacturing facility. The Waterbury Development Corporation will oversee this stage of the cleanup. 

Even though Ideal Fish was only in the city for nine years, McGrath still thinks they were a good “client.”

“They didn’t have a lot of employees because of the process by which they manufactured their fish, but I believe it had a positive impact, because we got publicity,” McGrath said. “I was in New York City (around 2018). I happened to be in a market that said they sell fresh branzino, born in the Mediterranean, raised in Waterbury, Connecticut. So I’m sure we got some type of benefit out of them being here.”

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