Lean What It takes to Run A Catfish Farm

 

Thinking Of Starting your own catfish hatchery of thinking of getting into the catfish farming industry?

Here is a quick video clip showing you what it is like to run your own catfish farm

Catfish Production: Some Very Effective and Simple ways to increase the surviving rate of your catfish

It can be very tedious for most people getting up in the early hours of your morning, 7day a week to prepare your Catfish farm, to feed, Protect and be concerned about the survival of your catfish for 4 to 4 Month in the hope of getting a good harvest (have all the money you want to enjoy life with your family), only to realize on the day of the harvest that you indeed have much more less fish than you started out with;

What is left of your catfish would not even cover the cost of production even after selling your stock for a very high or maximum price. www.animalfarmtreatment.blogspot.com

This situation I just explained or painted is a fact of life for most catfish farmers and even as I write this article, some are yet to figure out the reasons why they lost a substantial proportion of the fish they started out with.

A large amount of catfish farmers that have experienced what I have just explained have tendency to think someone has been stealing their fish why most people even blame it on their staff stealing their fish or even suspect on predators.

Most of these reasons might be true… but there could be other reasons too

Reasons that you as a fish farmer must be conscious off too, especially if you are one of those fish farmer also growing catfish for profit.

If you don’t know what these other reasons are, you might be doing yourself damage or going on making the same mistake most catfish farmers are making and continue to make losing their catfish, money and wrongly accusing people, while a simple prevention like what I am about to share with you in a minute could possibly save thousands of your fingerlings and save you from a lot of heartache in the future plus possibly enabling you to make more money from your catfish farming business.

Most farmers hardly notice loses at the time of occurrence.

You might ask WHY?

Because the losses does not occur normally until after about 3 to 5days after stocking up on the pond and the loss could go on occurring for up to about a week resulting in substantial losses to the fish farmer.

Now because most of the stock that die do not necessarily come up to the surface of the water, many catfish farmers fail to notice that something can be wrong with their catfish stock. It is only they drain the pond, that some farmers notice they have far fewer stocks than they expected.

This is why most farmers tend to think that they had lost their stock of fish to thieves.

That might be right…but what is the thief case of the reason for the death of these fishes then? … I hear you ask Well, one of the major causes of low fatality in grow out ponds is the quality of the fingerlings stocked. Yes! The quality of the fingerlings stocked by the fish farmer.

Fingerlings are the livelihood of the catfish farming business, If you have bad quality catfish fingerlings, you might as well be throwing your money down the drain regardless of how good your other factors of production are, that you possess poor quality catfish fingerlings will only result in disease, poor fish growth, low yield, poor feed conversion and very poor fish production resulting to loss of money to your business.

One of the most stressful times for fish is when you move them from one area to another i.e. transferring the fish from the hatchery or nursery to the grow-out pond. It is also why you are stocking the pond that the stress is most likely to occur.

How then can you prevent this loss and maximize your production output?

Catfish Farming-Administration and Production of Catfish Fries.

Production of catfish has progressively augmented overtime as the recognition of catfish continues to grow.


You capability to effectively produce catfish as a big business is very dependent on the ready availability of catfish fingerlings with which to stock your fish invention pond


One of the invention methods used by big commercial fish farmers to produce catfish fingerlings is the pond spawning egg transport spawning method.


This includes a spawning phase where a carefully selected number of brood stock are allowed to spawn in a near natural surroundings and a hatchery phase, then the eggs are then collected and transferred to a hatchery facility with the best environment for egg growth and fry growth.


This process involves skillful supervision and a fairly high initial investment but offers one of the most cost successful means of producing high number of catfish fingerlings.


I have added a video clip to help explain the process involved in production of catfish fingerlings.


It will also help you to discover how to carefully select brood stock catfish to stock on your catfish farm and also teach you how to take care of your catfish brood fish until the fingerlings are ready for stocking into your grow out ponds.


Video: channel Catfish Spawning and hatchery Management

Separating dead eggs

In spite of the cause of death, dead eggs should be removed to prevent disease outbreaks. Live eggs are transparent and develop from a pale yellow to an orange–red color as they mature. Dead eggs are often tricky to identify during the first day or two after spawning. But by the third day, dead eggs characteristically appear opaque and colorless. Some dead eggs also may be enlarged. When dead eggs are observed, they can be removed by hand, being careful not to damage nearby live eggs. Egg masses older than 24 hours should be turned over occasionally in the hatching basket and inspected for fungus and bacteria. This should be done at least twice daily, but no more than four times daily, until hatching begins.

Managing egg death

The factors that can cause dead eggs (eggs that have stopped developing) include excessive handling, overcrowding, high temperature, water hardness, and transport delays. Important hatchery water quality parameters will be reviewed in my other post, please subscribe to this blog to get new information about your farm.

Excessive handling
Embryos in the early improvement stages are sensitive to handling and should be handled as little as possible to prevent mechanical injury.

Overcrowding
Many factors affect the maximum loading rate a hatchery can sustain. Generally, 1 to 2 pounds (0.45 to 0.9 kg) of egg mass can be incubated in a single hatching basket 8 inches wide x 16 inches long x 4 inches deep (20 cm x 41 cm x 10 cm). Egg masses should not overlap substantially. Over-crowding causes poor water circulation and makes it easier for diseases to transfer between egg masses.

Temperature
Temperature is a significant environmental factor that affects egg improvement, hatch rates and disease susceptibility. Newly spawned eggs are more sensitive to temperature changes than eggs more than 24 hours old, in which the embryonic outline (the beginnings of a catfish fry) can be observed (Fig. 4b). If eggs less than 24 hours old are moved from a pond to hatchery water of a substantially different temperature, they must be acclimated to prevent a high mortality rate.

If the water temperature of the pond, transport container, and hatchery differ more than 5 to 7 °F (2 to 3 °C), eggs should be water-tempered for 15 to 20 minutes for each 5 °F (2 °C) of difference. Eggs can be tempered by using a hose to slowly run hatchery water into the transport container until the water temperature in the container matches that in the hatchery. The optimal temperature range for incubating catfish eggs is 78 to 82 °F (26 to 28 °C). At temperatures above and below this range, hatch rates will be reduced by egg death and disease (Fig. 5).

Transport delays
On larger farms, difficult logistics may cause eggs to sit in spawning cans at the pond side or in transport containers on vehicles for prolonged periods of time. Eggs should not be left on the pond bank for more than 15 to 30 minutes because long transport times and poor water conditions during transport (e.g., temperature and dissolved oxygen) result in egg death. In fact, it has been reported that egg masses left unprotected in cans on the pond bank for 30 minutes have up to 25 percent lower hatch rates than eggs transported quickly.

If transport time may exceed 30 minutes, eggs should be put in insulated containers with well-oxygenated water (> 5 ppm dissolved oxygen). Fill transport containers with pond water to help prevent shock caused by differences in water quality and temperature. When the quality of pond and hatchery water is significantly different, be sure to temper the eggs by slowly exchanging the transport container water with hatchery water.

Water stability
The calcium component of water hardness plays an important role in catfish fry development. Hatch rates from eggs incubated in water with less than 10 ppm calcium hardness during the first 24 hours after spawning are reduced by as much as 70 percent. Low calcium stability during later stages of development can cause up to a 25 percent reduction in hatch rates. For this reason, it is important to maintain adequate calcium hardness in the hatchery water—a minimum of 20 ppm, especially during the first 24 hours after spawning. During periods of low calcium concentration, as when a metering pump fails, newly spawned eggs (less than 24 hours old) can be left in the pond an extra day or a calcium chloride solution can be added to hatching troughs designated for new spawns.

Top secret you need to know to be successful in Catfish Farming

The business of catfish farming is to bring into being fish to supply your catfish market at a viable price and to make a profit after you have taken into account all the amounts you spent on raising the fish, paying the staff, edifice the farm, the pond and transporting the fish to the market etc.

If you are able to sell your product for more than the total cost it took you to produce the fish, you have a viable business.

There are 5 key parameters that help determine your level of production and how well you do as a fish farmer and how lucrative your business is likely to be.

If you know what these key factors are and you look out for them and manage them well in your fish farming business, you are quarantined of having a successful fish farming production.

What are these key parameters that help determine your profitability in the catfish business?

The key parameters that help determine your level of production and success in the catfish farming industry are:

1). the value of water in your fish pond and how well you manage it

2). the value and quantity of the feed you feed your fish and how well you manage it

3). the quality of the fish you stock in your pond.

4). How well you are able to manage the Fish farm

5). your understanding of the market.


Understanding these key parameters are the first steps towards becoming successful in the catfish farming business.

Now that you know what they are, your level of success in producing your own catfish depends on how well you manage these factors

How well would you say you are currently managing these key factors on your own fish farm?

How to hatch catfish-Very easy step

The process of hatching catfish can be very simple and also difficult if proper care and maintenance, please follow the simple instruction given below.


1) Get a matured male and female broad stock catfish
2) Induce the female catfish and leave for 12hrs
3) Stripping the egg of the female catfish


1) GET A MALE AND FEMALE BROAD STOCK CATFISH
This step will be explained in a lay man language and for easy practical doing; I promise you that if you follow this step you will be a successful catfish farmer. To get a mature female and male catfish for hatching, it must be above 10months to a year, and the way to identify it is through the egg. The egg can be brown or green; it can also be identify through the head of the catfish.



2) INJECTING THE FEMALE CATFISH
When injecting the female catfish it must be beside the belly, and rob where the needle is being penetrated so that the drug cannot come out or settle in just that area where you inject it, the name of the drug is called ova prim. After inducing the female catfish, separate both by removing the male catfish to a separate pond. After inducing the female catfish leave her a separate large plastic and pour a little water into the pond and cover it for 10hour to12hours.
NB: the whole process should be in the evening to enable the female catfish relax very well.


3) STRIPPING THE EGG OUT OF THE FEMALE CATFISH 
After the duration of 10-12 hours, GENTLY strip out the eggs from the Female catfish with your hands into a bowl. After doing that, you will need to dissect the male catfish to remove the sperm, then squeeze the white substance out from the sperm bag and pour it into the bowl containing the eggs, then steer gently to mix it together and then add a little water then steer it together and gently pour out the water. Use a plastic spoon and gently put the eggs on the floating net inside the already prepared fish pond. Cover the pond and leave for 24hrs you’ll observe some movement at the bottom of the pond.


With this explanation I believe you will be able to practicalize this and see thing for yourself

How to Manage Hatch Rate and Diseases in Catfish Eggs

Prevention should be the first line of defense when managing catfish egg disease and survival.

undemanding supervision strategies, such as disinfecting the hatchery before the hatchery season, having separate nets and equipment for each hatching trough, Your hands must be infection free, disinfecting egg masses before bringing them into the hatchery, as well as using a pathogen-free water supply, help prevent the introduction of infectious pathogens into the hatchery. The goals of a good hatchery organized program should be to avoid disease and provide the most favorable environment for embryo improvement and survival.

Detailed information on hatchery management and water quality can be found in this blog. The focus here is on improving hatch rates and running common egg diseases.