Fish farming

*EQUIPMENT'S AND FACILITIES NEEDED TO START FISH FARMING.*

As with almost any other farming business in any location,starting a Catfish farming business in Nigeria requires you have some important fishing equipment's on ground, where you can comfortably set up your farm. 

These include: 

*1. SPACE /PIECE OF LAND:* You would unavoidably need an area of land to start your fish farming business, but it all depends on what you afford. If it’s for a small scale Catfish farming business, then you can use a space as small as 1.5 square meters by 1.5 square meters. 

However, if you have some extra cash to spare, especially since the bigger your space, the more fishes you can rear; which also means the more returns you are looking at. 

*2. SOURCE OF WATER:* Being the most important thing your fishes need as this is their habitat the best kind of water to use is well water or bore hole, you want to avoid treated water as this can affect your fishes, causing death or stunted growth. 

*3. PONDS:* Depending of what kind of pond you want to use and your budget, either tarpaulin, tanks, concrete ponds or dug ponds. You can either construct by yourself or hire the service of a pond construction expert/engineer. The very basic and important part of every pond is drainage and filling them up with water. 

*4. OVERHEADTANK:* The overhead tank is the water reservoir for the fishes. The tank might have an independent borehole or it can share from your own domestic borehole (if it’s around your house). but if you can guarantee light or a means to pump water (maybe generator) and change the water of your pond, then you can manage without this. 

*5.FINGERLINGS:* There are various recommended farms where you can get your fingerlings from. If possible, check from a few of the recommended farms before making a pick of fingerlings. You can decide if you want to buy fingerlings, post fingerlings or juveniles. Fingerlings are few days old, post fingerlings are older and juveniles are the oldest. Now stocking your pond with juveniles can be better as they are stronger than fingerlings, this would greatly reduce your mortality, only down side is that they are more expensive than fingerlings, as fingerlings can be sold between N7-N10 naira, but juveniles N20-N30. 

*6. KNOWLEDGE:* If everything works out at the first try, it will definitely be thanks to the knowledge you have about the business. If doesn’t, you can always give it another shot because nobody can take away the knowledge of the business in your head. Don't be discouraged when people say you need millions to start any business, start with what you have, then with what you can get, make use of the power of leverage, either you partner with a friend, rent a pond, invest with your savings..etc.

So you begin to ask yourself questions like. 

1. How fast can I grow this fishes. 

2. Is there anything i can do to even out their sizes. 

3. How do I make these guys more comfortable.. 

Etc.

Love the business and it would love you back

*QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE VENTURING INTO CATFISH FARMING.* 

1. How much capital can I afford to start the business? (Capital would determine your starting scale Small Scale or Large Scale.) 

2. How many Catfish farmers are in my vicinity? (Knowing this would help you determine the competition in your farm area.) 

3. What is the demand for Catfish in my area? (Demand is not equal everywhere.) 

4. Can I have the time to oversee the farm or do I need to employ a fish farmer? (You need to know for proper budgeting.) 

5. What is Catfish farming’s ROI (Return on Investment.). How much is a kilo of fish sold in my vicinity.

While I advice you ask this questions I also advice you don't. 

*heres my reason*

You are starting because if passion, deriving fufilment from what you do but the major reason is because you want to get first hand training. 

So you are not think it of the cost, the stress and all. 

All you are think it of is *i want to understand the inside and outside of this business*

*PONDS.*

This is where rearing of catfishes takes place. Depending on what kind of pond you want to use and your budget. 

* TYPESOFPONDS* 

Concrete ponds; These are the best, especially if you own the land. They are the most expensive, but they are worth it. Here you will need the service of bricklayers and plumbers to access the size of your pond, plumbing work and cost of construction.

2. Plastic pond; These ponds are also cost effective but not as much as the tarpaulin ponds, they are very good and would save you the stress of having to worry about sharp objects.

3. Tarpaulin ponds; You can either construct your tarpaulin pond or buy it and have someone set it up for you, which saves you the stress. Tarpaulin ponds are very good in the sense that they are cheap, can easily be set up and you can pack it up any time you want to relocate.

4. Earthen ponds; This is also a very good way to rear your fishes, also your major expenses is cost of digging. I like this kind of pond majorly because its a natural habitat for these guys.

Each type of pond differs. 

I love the concrete pond best because maintenance is not much especially if you use good blocks and enough cement.

Unlike tarpaulin and plastic that will wear and tear, concrete would still last the best. 

So based on your  financial ability and your own space you can decide on what to use.

Water is their natural habitat so it has to be 100% making sense. 

Water stored in iron tanks is very bad as it would contain rusted iron particles  and cause their skin to peel and your fishes to die.

Most times people ask me for the best type of booster to use. 

The truth is the best kind of booster you can use is borehole water.

*PREPARATION OF POND BEFORE STOCKING YOUR FISHES.*

Before your fishes arrive, you want to make sure your fish pond is neat with clean bore hole water. 

Now you can use salt to wash your pond to kill certain germs and bacteria, because of the chlorine present in salt. But I advice against this as new farmers can get it wrong and the same salt used to clean your pond is also used to kill them What else can you use to clean your pond??? 

You can make use of either bleach or chlorine. You want to use as little as possible. 2 full cap of your chlorine or bleach in a bucket of water 4-5litres After your pond as been cleaned rinse well, till smell of chlorine or bleach is almost faint or you can't smell at all. Now,after your pond as been filled with clean bore hole water. 

You can get a good booster or vitamin. There are many good products out there, get to your vet and you can get a good booster between N500, N700 and above. Onthe drug would be given a detailed instruction on how to mix with your water and your feed. Once you have gotten your juvenile catfishes, you want to make sure they are not stressed too much from the point of transportation to being introduced into your pond.

This means: 

i. You want to avoid exposing them to heat

ii.  You want to avoid completely covering the container you put them into before they get to your farm 

iii. You want to avoid shaking the container too much; if you have to transport them on bad road, drive slowly. 

iv. Once the fishes get to your farm, the next step is to introduce them into your ponds. Now, the worst way to go about this is to just pour/empty the container into your pond; that is faster, but it stresses your fishes. If you do this, you could get to farm the next day to find dead fishes floating on your pond. 

The best way to go about this is to slowly put the container into the pond (that's if it is small; if it is big, look for a small container and do this slow and steady), let the natural pond water mix a bit with the water you brought the fishes in for a while before finally releasing them into the pond. 

Doing this ensures they don't suddenly get introduced to the water, which probably has different temperature and qualities from the one they were brought in. They get some time to adapt before being finally introduced into the massive water in the pond. 

Doing this for approximately 30 seconds to 1minute before releasing the fishes into the pond should be fine.

*Concluding on catfish farming*

3 major critereas your must address. 

1. Feed

2. Sorting

3. Aeration

Catfish feed requires certain nutrients that will help the farmer optimize the growth as well as increase the profit on their catfish farming business. 

Below are the 4 classes of nutrients, in order of importance, essential in any feed formulation: 

1) PROTEIN : This class of nutrient is required for building body tissue and replacement of damaged tissue. It contains physiological molecules such as hormones and enzymes. It can be obtained from plants and animals. 

2) ENERGY (CARBOHYDRATE): This nutrition provides the energy needed for catfishes. Grains of cereals and cassavas are the major source of this nutrient. 

3) VITAMINS AND MINERALS: Growth, and health are controlled by this class of nutrition. For example, organic and inorganic chemicals are found in vitamin and minerals. 

4) FAT: Contains vital fatty acids and also enhances energy delivery in feed.

*DIFFERENT BRANDS OF FEED.* 

 Aqualis. 

 Coppens. 

 Topfeed. 

 Skretting 

 Aller aqua. 

 Vital fish feed. 

 Ecofloat fish feed.

To reduce expenses on feed you can formulate your own feed,  by simply going to a feed mill, they sell the ingredients and will also mill them for you.

All these ingredients are sold in the mill. You just need to find the closest feed mill around you, ask for the prices of each ingredient, multiple it by the kg you are purchasing plus cost of milling the feed. It is advisable to feed your catfish with vital feed for at least 1 month (i.e if it is fingerlings you buy), after then you can start formulating feed, this is because of hygiene of your feed. Bigger fishes can be okay with fish formulated feed because their immune system is stronger, but smaller fishes have weaker immune system. For 1000 catfishes, you need to budget over N150,000 for at least 4-5months. The feeds you will need include; 

0.8mm (quarter bag should be more than enough) 

1.2mm 

1.5mm 

2mm 

3mm 

4mm 

5mm 

6mm

You can change the feed size every month but 0.8mm for the first 2weeks, 1.2mm for the next 2 weeks, then 1.2mm for the third week and 1.5mm for the 4th week. Then 2mm in the second month, 3mm in the third and so on. It isnt exactly compulsory you use this pattern you can always try to see if they can eat a bigger size, you can just mix a bigger size with a smaller size i.e if you have been giving them 2mm for like 3 weeks and you try to give them 3mm and they comsume it, mix half of 2mm and half of 3mm and feed them, this is because all the fishes in the pond are not the same size, some will feed on the 2mm and other on the 3mm.

*SORTING.* 

In the course of raising fish whatever feed you give them and no matter your kind of management, fish are not likely to row at the same rate. Some will definitely grow faster than the other thus becoming bigger. Most of the time, bigger fishes do feed on the smaller one. 

So to prevent this, it is therefore necessary to sort your fishes. Sorting involve the process of separating the bigger fishes from the smaller ones. Sorting will also increase market price of your fish because you will have the opportunity of selling smaller and bigger fishes separately at your own time and price.

*AERATION.*

This is the process of increasing the level of dissolved oxygen in the water. Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the most critical and limiting factor in intensive catfish farming. Oxygen enters water through photosynthesis by aquatic plants, principally phytoplankton, and by diffusion at the air-water interface. In ponds, diffusion is promoted by wind and wave action and by artificial aeration. Oxygen is lost from water through respiration by fish, plankton and other organisms, and by aerobic decay of organic matter. Low level of oxygen in water is one of the factors that causes slow growth, death and other factors.

There are two ways to go about this simply. You can either use; 

*1. MANUAL METHOD:* Whenyou want to fill your pond with water, the pipe dropping water into your pond should be placed horizontally and should have plenty holes in it, such that when water drops into the pond, it drops like shower or rain drops. This is a simple and inexpensive method.

*2. MANMADE/MACHINE.*

You would want to go online to search for aerators, but they are quite expensive, around N15,000 upwards.

A fish will consume 250-300 naira on already formulated or foreign feed. Formulating yours will reduce cost.

In cat fish business, here's a short list that would guarantee you success;

1. Buying shooters/ good fingerlings from a farmer. 

2. Clean borehole water. 

3. Enough feed or good feed. 

4. A good booster. 

5. Sorting. 

6. Proper stocking

7. Aerating your pond. 

8. Changing water frequently.

9. Prayer

You need to realize that in any business working smart is a necessity. 

There are people that don't rear fishes, they simply buy small sizes called melaunge...smoke and sell at a higher price, some of these guys even make more money than even the fish farmers. 

You can do the same. Stock enough,  then at two months smoke a good percentage and use the money to feed the rest... That's called working smart.

The next publication is INTRODUCTION TO SNAIL FARMING