How to Ensure Good Health and Rapid Growth of your Catfish
The success of a business venture is when you provide a service and make profit. The farmer needs to ensure good health and rapid growth of your catfish. To make profit you need to grow the stock to table size in the shortest possible time. The longer it takes to grow the more financial involvement, getting it right from the start is very important.
Follow theses steps and you will have rapid growing fish
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Step one– Buy Shooters or young juveniles
Shooters are fast growing fingerlings that out grow their mates. They grow fast and with proper management will exceed all your expectation.
Young juvenile fish also has some advantages because they are slightly older than fingerlings. The age reduces the growth period and saves money in the long run.
Step two- Avoid overstocking
Adequate space is needed for fish to grow nicely in a controlled environment. Overstocking leads to loss in fish, poor growth rate and infectious diseases.
One of the biggest secrets to fast growing fish is providing space for your fish to grow. Beginners overstock and become frustrated because the end result is wastage of money, loss of fish and very small catfish.
Without proper space your catfish will struggle to grow. The monetary gain a novice fish farmer tries to make when he thinks quantity becomes a nightmare when he overstocks.
Step three-sorting and grading
When you have bought fast growing fish, provided enough space for them to grown then you sort. Sorting is important because keeping large fish with smaller ones is counter productive.
They will kill and eat each other for food, space and dominance. Sorting has many advantages which add value to the fish farming process.
Sorting can be done one month after stocking your pond and three months thereafter. Put fish of the same size together they relate well and grow at an even pace.
Sorting is also effective when marketing your table sized fish.
READ ALSO: How to Feed Table Size Catfish to Juveniles Catfish
Step four- frequent water change
The fish farmer should try to change the ponds water at least once a day. This is only applicable to above ground ponds like concrete ponds, block ponds and plastic ponds.
The quality of water greatly impacts either positively or negatively on the fish. Larger commercial farms that use the earthen ponds should regularly check the waters PH level and change appropriately.
Step five- feeding
How you feed them impacts directly on the growth rate of the fish. You can feed you fish either once a day or twice a day.
Feeding should take place early in the morning or before nightfall and feed them only what they can eat. You can use either spay feeding or point feeding but ensure they feed till they are full.
Avoided excess food in the water when feeding and clear any uneaten food after two hour. Feed them high quality feed especially floating fish food.
You can also add to their diet with other treats like worms and processed organ meat.
Step six-medication
Young fry are prone to diseases and can infect an entire stock. Catfish diseases abound and is caused by many reasons but the farmer can use preventive methods if he so wishes.
Your vet doctor can provide medication for your stock to boost their immune system. Medication is applied either directly to a pond or introduced into their food.
Some fish breeders have already given their fingerlings medication so the farmer only needs to maintain a level of hygiene.
What Causes Death of Catfish Stock in Commercial Fish Farming
Catfish die due to many factors such as diseases, poor facility management and pollutants. In order to prevent loss and capital flight its good for fish farmers to know what causes death in fish stocks.
Catfish by nature are tough and rugged and can withstand hash condition. But with wrong management and certain conditions a farmer can lose his entire stock.
Lets us examine things that cause the death of fish stock
Over stocking the Catfish Pond
Overstocking is a major culprit in massive fish loss for catfish farmers. This will impend the rapid growth of your catfish significantly. When the pond has a certain capacity and the farmer crams too many fish in a small pond this is overstocking.
A remote cause of overstocking that kills the fish is Ammonia poisoning. Another reason is that the pond also experiences low oxygen levels which will eventually kill the fish. The catfish struggles for air despite its sturdy nature and eventually dies.
READ ALSO: How to Develop and Grow Catfish with Aerator
Low fish density helps curb the spread of disease transmission in the pond. A multi-patch system whereby large commercial farmers stock both fingerlings with existing stock is highly counter productive. The survival rate for the fingerlings is less than 35 percent and the entire stock might get infectious diseases.
Sabotage
Sabotage is a very serious matter and occurs more frequently than you thing. A disgruntled employee can easily sabotage your stock causing mass loss of fish.
Sabotage can be direct or indirect like tampering with the fish feed. To prevent sabotage only hire people you can trust, use perimeter fencing, close-circuit camera and other methods.
Catfish Cannibalism
Catfish are cannibals and they will attack each other. Cannibalism in catfish can cause great loss of fish if not checked.
Catfish eat their young so using a multi-batch method will fail. Breeders know about the veracious appetite of catfish hence sorting. They also attack each other when they are very hungry; they seek either the biggest fish in the pond and gang up against it.
Sometimes death occurs when two big fish fight for dominance and prime locations. To prevent or reduce cannibalism feed the catfish regularly and promptly remove injured fish.
As the fish grows sort them according to their size and weight thereby reducing fish loss
Dirty Water Kills Catfish Fast
Infectious diseases kill over 45 percent of a catfish farmers stock. The culprits are single or mixed bacteria infections, parasitic or fungal infections.Infectious diseases
The economic loss from infectious disease to farmers is very high. Made more difficult if the farmer is unlucky to have multiple or mixed infections in a pond.
When there is an outbreak effective diseases management is the solution. The farmer needs to identify the problem, diagnoses then apply corrective measures.
Water toxicity
Poor water management can wipe out your entire stock the fish needs clean clear water to survive. The water should be constantly monitored and changed. Many waterborne diseases are caused by poor management of water resources.
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