Hello all!
My name is Kingsley. I'm a graduate of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the University of Calabar. I also have a Diploma in Marine Science.

I joined NL just to teach it's members, the core and basic areas in Fisheries which can boost your career to 40%.
We all know that Fish Farming is one of the best lucrative business in the world but how to start it is a crucial concern.

I selected 3 areas in Fisheries which I'll be teaching us. These areas are:
1. Fish Breeding
2. Hatchery
3. Feed Formulation

If you get these courses, I bet you will thank me later.
These 3 areas are professional areas in Aquaculture. You can focus on one or even all, if you wish.

Other colleagues here are welcome also. Your contributions and suggestions are highly welcomed also.

I'll be posting lessons here according to the way I post in my website.
So if you can't follow my website, follow me here to get updated with recent lessons.

Stay Tuned!

Remember to follow the post...
Let's go!

LESSON 1: FISH HATCHERY
www.fishclass.icu

A good knowledge of the types and magnitude of genotypes and their changes in performance can be achieved from the domestiation of Fish in captive propagation facility (Hatchery). Besides replicating the natural environment in the Hatchery, the Hatchery Manager is also able to reduce the effects of domestication by developing culture methods capable of reducing mortality. In Hatchery, some of the phenotypic expression may not be genetically correlated but environmentally induced such as the more readiness of hatery fish to feed on artificially prepared diet as contrasted to refusal of such diets by the introduced wild stocks.

Provision should be make for spawners by providing spawning tanks, hatching, incubation tanks with adequate water supply and aeration systems. There is always a drastic decline in Hatchery production upon neglect of these facts.

It is true that in the short term, the overall performance of hatchery reared fish in the wild is low. But in the long run, the benefit outweighs the demerits, since such strengthens the wild stock population and ultimately leads to a boost in fish yield to the society. Some times, fish to be released to the natural environment are of different quality, genetically and physiologically compared to those for immediate consumption.

Fish production for stocking in the wild must always meet rather precise size needs within a short period of time. The lowering or increasing of the temperature achieves this more readily. Consequently, standard hatcheries should have watere-recirculating systems for egg incubation, hatching and, possibly, for early rearing especially, when the ambient temperature regimes are unable to guarantee expected production.

Hatchery facilities could be designed to yeild the greatest population flexibility. However, the cost may be exhorbitant. It becomes quite obvious that there must be a balance between capital invested, labour and energy needs, production flexibilities as well as manageability of the Facilities.

Stay tuned for Lesson 2.

LESSON 2: COMPONENTS OF AN ECO-HATCHERY AND BREEDING IN AN ECO HATCHERY
www.fishclass.icu

An eco-hatchery is a hatchery wherein the optimum ecological conditions required for successful breeding and hatching of fish larvae at economic operational level are attained.


The ability to simulate a near natural ecological condition into the artificial environment determines how sucesucces a hatchery operation will be. Test following are the major constituents of a standard hatchery:

1. Spawning Tanks
2. Hatching Tanks
3. Larval rearing Tanks
4. Nursery Tanks.

I'll explain these Tanks in Lesson 3,4,5 and 6.
Stay connected!

LESSON 3: SPAWNING AND SPAWNING TANKS
www.fishclass.icu


These are sometimes constructed of concretes, fiberglass, large PVC units or big Aquaria for Tilapia and are located right inside the Hatchery or beside the Hatchery building for the purpose of holding the matured males and gravid/pregnant females until they breed. Spawning Tanks could take any shape ranging from circular, square, rectangular to oblong depending on the taste of the Hatchery owner.



When mature adults have been taken from the pond, they are kept in spawning tanks to spawn. Usually, a ratio of two males to one female is kept in each spawning pool. Fish like Tilapia may be kept in Aquaria of different sizes ranging from 10ltrs to 100ltr capacities or more for spawning to take place. About 10 Tilapia comprising 6 males and 4 females could be introduced into 100ltr Aquaria for spawning.



During spawning, all the necessary conditions ranging from constant renewal of water, light, adequate temperature, salinity for salt water fish and aeration etc, are out in place. Immediately after spawning, the adults are separated from the larvae. Bath treatment using potassium permanganate is given before returning the adults back to the pond.

LESSON 4: LARVAL REARING TANK
www.fishclass.icu

The moment the larvae hatch out, they quickly swim away from the light region to the dark region and get clustered at the edges of the tank or at one corner of the container. It is crucial that they be siphoned immediately with the help of Teflon tubes or very tiny hose into the larval rearing trays/tanks where they stay until their yolk sacs are fully reasbsorbed before feeding commence.

The larval rearing tank is expected to be quite long to give room for active swimming. It could be constructed of fibreglass of 10m long and 60cm wide. It could also be wide enough to guarantee swimming space. It could also be in Aquaria using flow-through systems. Such flow-through could be in form of recirculatory system, raceway or silos. Details of these 3 systems will be discussed later.

Water flow is constant and regulated. The first exogenous feeding takes place here as soon as the yolk sac is reabsorbed. Usually, for tiny larvae (4-6mm at hatch) like those of catfish, the first food should be plankton.