Fishward articles

Overview:

To get a good crop of marketable fish it’s necessary to stock the pond with the correct number of fingerlings. Stocking too few fish may result in fast growth and large fish but this isn’t an economical use of the pond. However, stocking too many fish will result in slow growth and a large number of very small fish.

Catfish

• If you are stocking catfish fingerlings to rear to market size, stock them at a dens

Ingredients

Rice bran, Fish meal/Shrimp, Sunflower, Maize germ, Wheat flour and Water

Mixing Ratios

Mash = Rice bran + Fish meal + Sunflower + Maize germ (9:5:5:1)

Pellets = Powder Mash + Wheat flour (10:1)

Procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients in appropriate ratios to come up with mash (powder feeds)
2. Mix the mash with wheat flour. The wheat flour serves as a binder
3. Now add a little water

Overview:

To get a good crop of marketable fish it’s necessary to stock the pond with the correct number of fingerlings. Stocking too few fish may result in fast growth and large fish but this isn’t an economical use of the pond. However, stocking too many fish will result in slow growth and a large number of very small fish.

Tilapia

• For all-male (monosex) culture of tilapia for the market, stock fish of 20-40 g size

Agricultural limestone refers to calcite (calcium carbonate) and dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate). Liming is an effective tool in fish production and pond management.

The lime used in fish ponds include:

• Agricultural lime, CaCO3
• Hydrated lime, Ca(OH)2
• Quicklime, CaO

You should always choose agricultural limestone (CaCO3) for application in your fishpond. You can also use Hydrated lime (Ca (

With good management, your fish should be ready to harvest within six to nine months after stocking. By this time, tilapia should have reached a size of approximately 250-300g and catfish a size of 250-500g, depending on their size at stocking, the density at which they were stocked, and water temperatures during the growing period.

Preparing for the harvest

• Make marketing arrangements well in advance of the harvest date.
• Plan to harvest your

Just as fish need good water quality conditions to thrive, they also need an abundant supply of food to grow. We can provide food for our fish in two different ways: We can give them “artificial” feeds that are prepared either commercially or at home, or we can ensure that they have an abundance of natural foods by using fertilizers to increase pond productivity. In either case, it is important to try to provide them with a diet that is nutritionally complete.

This section

Overview:

The pit test in pond construction helps you to determine whether the selected area is suitable to construct an earthen pond.

Dig a pit in the land area being evaluated, fill it with water, and observe how well it retains that water (better yet, dig and test a number of pits throughout the area).

Follow these steps:

1. Dig a small pit about 50 cm in diameter to the probable depth of the possible future pond.

Overview:

When ponds are built, the top soil is alkaline and fertile. However this soil is removed and the soil left to build dykes is less alkaline and in some cases very acidic. Ponds built in areas which have acid soils and soft water may not always perform well for fish production. Such ponds may benefit from liming if the water has a total alkalinity of less than 20 mg/l.

Why Lime your fishpond?

If a fish farmer applies fertilizer