25 Things to Know Before Venturing into a Catfish Business
Catfish business is a profitable business to venture into but you have to be vast in knowledge about the nitty gritty of the business. Catfish itself is an incredible, friendly and amazing animals to culture if the following nuggets is strictly followed:
1. The pond size should be Volume of catfish to be stock = Length x breadth x width
2. The Farmer you get your fingerlings or juvenile from must be reliable in the sense that the fish given to you must be a fish that can grow to a big table size.
3. Weigh your juveniles or fingerlings after collection from farm before pouring it into your pond.
4. Let there be a constant strategic area you place their feed, i.e. don’t scattered their food on the water
5. Weigh your catfish before sorting by putting all your catfish on a scale to confirm their weight in correlation with feed given and to also ascertain their growth based on the feed taken.
6. Sort them (catfish) every Three (3) weeks.
7. They are susceptible to death if salt is pour in large quantity inside the pond.
8. If Catfish is putting mouth up gasping, it means their stomach is filled up but if they are putting mouth up around the pond, it means water is contaminated and the water need to be changed immediately to avoid fish not to suffocate because they need oxygen at all time.
9. Don’t feed them immediately you change their water and don’t change their water after feeding them.
10. Hold on their feed, if they are no more taking it and this is known when they are not competing for feed.
11. The basic three most important thing in catfish life are:
(a) Feed (b) fresh clean water and (c) sorting.
The feed contain all the require nutrients and medication for their survival, while the fresh water gives them oxygen for breathing. Sorting helps to avoid mortality or cannibalism and unhealthy competition from the big size against the small size.
12. Catfish is a rugged animal. Their disease is not transmitted to other catfish if one is ill. This attributes make catfish better than birds.
13. Start feeding your catfish after 2month with local feed but the first 10 weeks they should be feed with foreign feed for fast growth. Advantage of local feed is that it gives weight rather than increment in size gotten from foreign feed. Disadvantages of local feed is inability of feed to float on water and this give room not to know whether they are eating well or not
14. Catfish farmers sells weight not size. Ensure that your catfish have enough weight that meet market demand.
15. Catfish are in stage inside the pond. If one misses feed, the other take it
16. It is not advisable to sell catfish inside pond without weighing them.
17. Record their mortality and morbidity rate
18. Catfish scale ranges from 40, 50 etc.
19. Catfish must be in contact with clean surfaces always and it is advisable to keep catfish in shaded areas (wet sack, weed, and leaves evaporation causes cooling).
20. If the fish used in hatching your catfish is small like 0.5kg or 1kg, then relatively the table size of the fish will never be much bigger than the size of the fish used to hatch them but if the fish used during hatching is like 2kg,3k, then the outcome of the table size of the fish will definitely be big. Law of genetics.
21. The historical background of the catfish you want to rear must be asked from the farmer before buying in order to be rest assured of the fastest growth of your fishes to table size.
22. Hatching of fish is bringing from nonexistence to existence, which is very technical.
23. If your fish doesn’t reached 1kg – 3kg after 5 – 6 month, it is advisable to smoke it to prevent run at lost.
24. It is advisable that the pond to be used to be in rectangular shape.
25. It is mandatory to have a farm diary, to record all activities on the farm for future endeavors.
NOTE:
Before starting any business, it is worthwhile to do feasibility studies and also have a detailed business plan to work with, these will save you a lot of money from wastage.
Always seek sound professional advice before making important business decisions. For more info on catfish farming or business plan writing for your agricultural business kindly contact:

Transcend Farms and Livestock Company
Tel – 08092525088; 08082525088
WhatsApp – 07034362895
Email – transcendfarms@gmail.com
Twitter – @transcend_farms
Facebook- www.facebook.com/transcendfarms
Transcend Farms ……. Exceeding in Excellence

CATFISH FOR SALE

Melange fish N500/kg


Table size fish weighing 1kg-1.2kg N650/kg


Male & female broodstock N1500 each

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Cherish Mzkathy Agro and Allied Services
Rumuokwurusi, Port Harcourt
Tel: 08068290970
kelejohn080@gmail.com