₦airaland Forum

I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

:::


I'm not a fish farmer. But using my common sense experience in other areas of livestock farming/agriculture changing water daily suggests the fish in the pond is overcrowded.


If you can or have the space and resources make another pond and separate them. From the size of what you posted those fish are still haven't reached their peak growth yet which means they require more space.


I don't know the stocking density for fish - as I said I'm not a fish farmer. But you should do your research. I think that might be part of the problem.



Also feeding them 3 or 4 times daily is surprising to me. Because I have fish farmer friends that feed just once daily or twice at most and their fish are doing well. ( at a point I almost ventured into fish farming but my mind isn't fully accepting it and would rather invest in other areas of livestock farming)


Is this your first time fish farming?

You people wont take time to learn the trade first before delving into catfish business.You allow internet information marketers to lead you all astray.

There might be a lot of factors that can cause deaths.

First your fingerlings stocks might be runts,that's why it's best to hatch your own fingerlings yourself instead of buying from others.

You can reduce feeding to twice a day, overfeeding causes quick pollution of the water limiting oxygen Available for the fishes.

Try to solve the problem of cannibalism by always doing fish sorting,that is separating big ones from small ones.

Check the pH of the water you are using with a test kit to ensure the pH is stable.

Buy extra tank and separate into two batches, no be chunk of missing flesh because of bite wars I dey see for the picture above like this 👀

If for say you learn am all this for no dy happen anyway bring like 2 bigs ones there for me make test first

That's the only way I can know what is killing them

This is over crowding man . The 3000 is too much for that size of pond. That place should take more than 500 fishes. And feeding 3-4 times a day is over feeding which isn't good for them.

Fishes are fed once a day. Infact,when they get to certain stage,no more feeding.

Good gracious. I haven't been online for a while. Thank you everyone for the piece of advice. I am positive one of the causes for the mortality was overfeeding. In regards to the space of the fishes, I have Seperated them into many different tanks and the death rate has reduced. Thank you, Nigerians.

lack of sufficient oxygen....separate them and have peace...If t is disease the number of death would be more than that

Bigsin:
Good gracious. I haven't been online for a while. Thank you everyone for the piece of advice. I am positive one of the causes for the mortality was overfeeding. In regards to the space of the fishes, I have Seperated them into many different tanks and the death rate has reduced. Thank you, Nigerians.

Thank you for the update.

More sane posts are making front page these days. Kudos.

brain54:
:::


I'm not a fish farmer. But using my common sense experience in other areas of livestock farming/agriculture changing water daily suggests the fish in the pond is overcrowded.


If you can or have the space and resources make another pond and separate them. From the size of what you posted those fish are still haven't reached their peak growth yet which means they require more space.


I don't know the stocking density for fish - as I said I'm not a fish farmer. But you should do your research. I think that might be part of the problem.



Also feeding them 3 or 4 times daily is surprising to me. Because I have fish farmer friends that feed just once daily or twice at most and their fish are doing well. ( at a point I almost ventured into fish farming but my mind isn't fully accepting it and would rather invest in other areas of livestock farming)


Is this your first time fish farming?

For the first time in history of Nairaland you posted something meaningful. Kudos

The pond is overcrowded, separate them and treat them with salt bath and give them oxytetracycline they will be okay.Catfish business is someone and overrated don't follow those marketer selling fingerlings online.It requires techniques and experience to manage.

Your main problem is overfeeding. It pollutes the water quickly and reduces oxygen.

3,000 catfish of that size are too many for that pond, it's too small. And the feed is processed with chemicals — when it dissolves in the same water they live and breathe in, it harms them.

Reduce feeding to 2 times daily with less quantity, change the water regularly and decongest the pond. Right now they are fighting both pollution and low oxygen.,

,

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

Check the size of the feed you gave them.change the feed to small size first.and see what happen next.

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

as a former farm manager, I can advise u to check the following.

Salt concentration of the water
Acidity of the water
Hope the water isn't to hard ( there's hard n soft water)....hard water will reduce oxygen in the tank.

Then if after doing all these n it persist, try n get a new treated tank n move them in to check what d problem is.

These ones are big size so cannibalism is ruled out


Ps....I can never do this business no matter how rich I am, it is too volatile

Zonefree:
For the first time in history of Nairaland you posted something meaningful. Kudos

Abi, e shock me. The guy get potential but apc don comot his brain

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

Overcrowded and cannibalism.

How big is the tank? Is that number not too much for the tank? Are the dishes well oxygenated? Is your tank water clean and changed when due?

Sorry for your loss, but if you had gone for proper training before venturing into the business you would have limited loss significantly.

Sorry about your loses but I want to advise you dont waste the weight investment on the dead fishes, firstly i think the problem is from feed, it could be feed quality or over feeding, it could also be the impact of injuries from heavyly stocked ponds(which is not a problem in itself). the other part is that the business is not about fish but about weigth, of which fish here is the instrument of the weight creation. I have said that to explain that catfish are canibals in nature so you can tranfer weight investment on the dead fish to the living ones. Just remove the guts and open up the flesh the throw it back in the pond. Others will feed on it and carry the weight investment forward.

Bigsin:
Good gracious. I haven't been online for a while. Thank you everyone for the piece of advice. I am positive one of the causes for the mortality was overfeeding. In regards to the space of the fishes, I have Seperated them into many different tanks and the death rate has reduced. Thank you, Nigerians.

Glad you have solved the problem of overcrowding. Get an experienced fish farmers to guide you for a month.

Sales is a big problem: prepare ahead. Hire someone in the business to help sell. You don't know the market as fish mongers can be like witches.

When fishes die, dont just throw them away. Roast them till dry and mix with small swallow for them to eat.

If the infection is external (Skin and Gill) : Potassium Permanganate or Formaldehyde is your best bet

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

You didn't learn this business properly before diving into it, you heard about the profit, and you felt you will blow within 6 months.

Trust me, if you really understand this business, you will know the exact cause of the problem.

brain54:
:::


I'm not a fish farmer. But using my common sense experience in other areas of livestock farming/agriculture changing water daily suggests the fish in the pond is overcrowded.


If you can or have the space and resources make another pond and separate them. From the size of what you posted those fish are still haven't reached their peak growth yet which means they require more space.


I don't know the stocking density for fish - as I said I'm not a fish farmer. But you should do your research. I think that might be part of the problem.



Also feeding them 3 or 4 times daily is surprising to me. Because I have fish farmer friends that feed just once daily or twice at most and their fish are doing well. ( at a point I almost ventured into fish farming but my mind isn't fully accepting it and would rather invest in other areas of livestock farming)


Is this your first time fish farming?

The guy didn't learn or understand the business properly.

Talk to the experts in the field

Mary95:
This is over crowding man . The 3000 is too much for that size of pond. That place should take more than 500 fishes. And feeding 3-4 times a day is over feeding which isn't good for them.

Fishes are fed once a day. Infact,when they get to certain stage,no more feeding.

You've said it all. That pond in particular that the OP posted shouldn't carry more than 1k fishes.
Also, three times feeding a day is too much, twice a day is recommended.

These ones are ajebor fishes.
Those kpako fishes inside river,who changes their water
And they all survive till ages

This is what scared me most about training livestock, sometimes the cost of feeding livestock for family will even feed you frozen foods weekly .. seconds na there mortality rate, my brother trains 10 fowl, he loses none till they grown up, after that him go buy another 10, not even one survive , since then him no close to training anything again,

Reduce their food to morning and evening for now.secondly..dont give them food immidetely you chage their water..

Emmabyte:
If for say you learn am all this for no dy happen anyway bring like 2 bigs ones there for me make test first

That's the only way I can know what is killing them

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 lol... You be wayo person.

No testing

brain54:
:::


I'm not a fish farmer. But using my common sense experience in other areas of livestock farming/agriculture changing water daily suggests the fish in the pond is overcrowded.


If you can or have the space and resources make another pond and separate them. From the size of what you posted those fish are still haven't reached their peak growth yet which means they require more space.


I don't know the stocking density for fish - as I said I'm not a fish farmer. But you should do your research. I think that might be part of the problem.



Also feeding them 3 or 4 times daily is surprising to me. Because I have fish farmer friends that feed just once daily or twice at most and their fish are doing well. ( at a point I almost ventured into fish farming but my mind isn't fully accepting it and would rather invest in other areas of livestock farming)


Is this your first time fish farming?

He is definitely overfeeding them. You have spoken well.

Another thing i also notice the quality of fish you bought..i has similar thing like that too.i bought hybrid and almost all at one paint begin to die..male sire you dont over feed them..one the feed floating on their water gather them all and sun dey them and give them back
Good luck

Make sure you smoke those fish and begin to sell them,dont begin to give your neighhour..sell them.best to you

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

3000 pieces can’t survived in this pond this is overstocking that pond is meant for just 600 to 700 pieces to 1g try to reduced those fish then you will thank me later. You can sell some then leave like 600 to 700

Bigsin:
I have a tank filled with about 3,000 catfish and I change their water EVERYDAY because it gets dirty easily. Changing their water affects my electricity bill a lot because the fishes don't like rushing or eating their foods when the water is dirty. Anyhoo, that's a story for another day. In regards to feeding, I feed them 3-4 times a day.

The problem I'm facing now is that I'm losing them slowly and it hurts. Everyday, I get up to 5 mortalities.

What could I be doing wrong?

first on your bills, you incur more bills with the way you are running your farm. this will accumulate through water management and feeding.

you're meant to feed them twice daily, only if you ration same daily meal into portion (if you feed them 500g daily then you decide breaking it to three or four times instead of twice). change their water every three days instead of every day.

their water get dirty easily as a result of the excess feed residual which in pollutes the water. did you treat your pond before stocking? you need to treat your fish and pond.