Adieza:
How To Start An Intensive Catfish Farming
Catfish farming is one of the profitable agribusiness venture for youths. One could easily make a lot of Money venturing into commercial Catfish farming.
I will give a detailed guide on how I started my own catfish farm. Just do me a favour by patiently reading till the end.
The species of catfish I'm farming. For my fish farm, I am culturing the African catfish known as Clarias gariepinus.
Clarias gariepinushas an average adult length of 1–1.5 m, it reaches a maximum length of 1.7 m and can weigh up to 60 kg. My target is to achieve a live weight of at least 4kg.
The African catfish was realized to be a very suitable species for fish farming for the following reasons:
*.It has fast growth rate and feeds on a large variety of agriculture byproducts
*.It is hardy and tolerates adverse water quality conditions
*.It can be raised in high stocking densities, resulting in high net yields
*.The selling price is higher due to its demand
*.It tolerates difficult conditions in fish farming
System of management
The System of management I used in this catfish farming is Semi-intensive system. It mainly involves fertilizing the pond so that algae will grow as supplementary feed and source of dissolved oxygen for the fishes, and occasionally flushing the pond.
I am using this management option because I stay in a place where there is no constant water supply.
Fertilization of Pond water
Fertilizers are natural or synthetic substances that are used in ponds to increasethe production of the natural food organismsto be eaten by the fish. These organisms includephytoplankton, zooplankton,and insects. They are all part of a complexfood webconverging toward fish production. By increasing the availability of major nutrients,fertilizers promote the development of planktonic algae, which provide food for many fish.
Fish pond can be fertilized with two types of fertilizers.
1.Mineral or inorganic fertilizerswhich contain only mineral nutrients and no organic matter. They are manufactured industrially to be used in agriculture for improving crop production and they can be obtained from specialized suppliers or agro-allied companies.
2.Organic fertilizers, which contain a mixture of organic matter and mineral nutrients. These include poultry droppings, pig faeces, cow dung, rabbit faeces e.t.c
I used poultry droppings for the fertilization of my pond. See the video demonstration of how to fertilize pond.
After fertilizing the pond I let it stand for more than one week. After one week I noticed the growth of algae which is the natural food of the fishes. I then removed the bag of poultry droppings from the pond water.
Stocking with fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus
When I wanted to stock my fish I removed three-quarter of the pond water which is now very green and filled up with clean water. The reason for this is to reduce turbidity and light penetration into the water.
The Catfish I want to farm is the African Catfish scientifically known asClarias gariepinus. I now introduced the fishes into the pond water.
Feeding of the fingerlings
I fed the fishes three times daily; morning, afternoon and night. For the first three weeks(April 4th- April 25th) the fishes were fed 1mm of extruded(floating) fish feed rich in protein content. In the evening of April 25th, I started to feed the fishes with 1.8mm feed and that is what they are eating up till now.
The video below is me feeding the fishes.
Flushing of Fish pond(partially changing pond water)
Although I use the semi-intensive culture of catfish where algae is allowed in the pond water as supplementary fish food and source of oxygen, it is important to flush the pond for a number of reasons.
1. Water changing remove excess nitrates, heavy metals (which will just concentrate if the pond water is only replaced through evaporation). So reducing like three-quarter of pond water and refilling with clean water will reduce the concentration of this compounds.
2. Flushing of pond reduces pond water turbidity which impedes light penetration into the pond water. This turbidity is usually caused by high concentration of organic matter in the pond.
3. It reduces algae boom; a condition in which the green algae becomes over-populated in pond water and harm the fishes by greatly reducing oxygen content of fish pond water.
4. It also helps reduce the foul smell that might be coming out from the fish pond.
Other points to note: Always examine your fishes well and make sure they are well fed with the best feed at the fingerlings stage.

www.agricinfo.com/2017/03/how-to-start-intensive-catfish-farming.html?m=1


Video Link of how i made a good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYioCFmeURo