SUCCESS SECRETS IN CATFISH FARMING

QUALITY LOCAL CATFISH FEED PRODUCTION MADE EASY.. .(Part TWO)

Having stocked your fingerlings or juvenile catfish as the case may be, feeding the fish is a major activity that both takes your time and consumes your money. Before now, this was not too much of a concern but as of late, it is not only a major concern. It has become a serious threat to the once thriving industry and all those that are engaged in it. The reason being that the price of feed and feed stuff has not only gone up exorbitantly, the feed itself has become also very scarce. The alternative and the current quest now is for farmers to look inward for locally available feedstuff and personalized feed. While this quest is both necessary and noble, there is a need for better understanding of what it takes to feed catfish locally and how to go about making the feed available, affordable and in the right condition suitable for rapid growth and overall wellbeing of the catfish.

FEED PRODUCTION

Producing your own feed is a matter of choice. It has both advantages and disadvantages. As part of the advantages, you will be sure of the quality of feed you are giving to your fish. It will also help to reduce your cost of feeding. You can take advantage of locally available ingredients in your environment and you can produce the feed at your convenience

However, the disadvantages are equally much. The feed do not float as such, you cannot be sure if they are being consumed. They easily disintegrate, leading to feed wastage. If you do not have access to commercial feed mill, you will have to spend money on equipment: such as grinding machine, pelleting machine and dryer. This of course will increase your initial cost of operation. Besides, most of the key feedstuff may not be available at times in which case you may not have feed for your fish for a while or you may need to improvise. In the final analysis, self-feed production is relatively cheaper but much more challenging.

DRY FEED STUFF AND THEIR ESTIMATED DRY MATTER FOOD VALUE

	CARBOHYDRATE %	FAT %	PROTEIN %
CARBOHYDRATES
maize	60	4	10
wheat	60	2	11.5
Brewery waste	46	6.4	20.5
millet	48	4	10

PROTEINS
Danish fish meal	1.5	4	72
Soya cake	28.2	6	48
Soya meal	28	3.5	42
Blood meal	1.5	1.3	78
Local fish meal	1.5	19.5	65
Groundnut cake	27.3	7.6	45

FATS & FIBRE
Palm kernel cake	53	6	18
Full fat soya	28	17	42
Wheat offal	58	3.5	17

HOW TO CALCULATE THE CRUDE PROTEIN CONTENT OF ANY FEED FORMULATION

Every complete dry feed formulation should consist of complete diet, chiefly amongst which is protein which is needed by fish for tissue development and growth. The crude protein content is one of the main factors that determine the quality and by extension the feed conversion ratio, FCR, of every dry complete feed – pelleted or extruded. It is therefore important for you to know how to determine and calculate the crude protein content of every feed formulation before using or recommending them. Following is how to do it.

Determine the quantity of feed in kilograms that you want to produce.
Use that quantity to divide the quantity of each feed ingredient that contains protein
Multiply the answer with the protein value of that feed – see table ,,, for feed types and their protein value
Continue this until you are through with all the feed stuff that has protein in the formular
Add all the figures obtained. The sum is the crude protein value of the formulation

Example: a farmer intends to produce 20kg of feed with the following formulation

Feed type	% of feed type in formulation	% of feed type x qty of feed to produce –20kg equals Quantity of feed type in kilogram
Danish fish meal	20	4kg
Groundnut cake	15	3kg
Soya cake	20	4kg
Maize/ wheat	35	7kg
fat	8	1.6kg
Vitamin premix minerals	2	0.4kg
TOTAL		20KG

To calculate crude protein value of fish meal, it is: 4/20 x 72 = 14.40

To calculate crude protein value of groundnut cake, it is: 3/20 x 45 = 6.75

To calculate crude protein value of soya cake, it is: 4/20 x 48 = 9.60

To calculate crude protein value of maize/wheat, it is: 7/20 x 10 = 3.50

The crude protein content therefore is: 14.40 + 6.75 + 9.60 + 3.50 = 34.35%

PROCEDURE FOR PERSONAL FEED PRODUCTION

1. Buy the various feed condiments from feed mills or feed ingredients marketers

2. Grind them separately, using a hand driven (manual) or mechanical (diesel/electricity) powered machine.

3. Mix the grinded condiments (feed concentrate) together in accordance with the recommended percentages relative to the desired quantity (in kilogram) you want to produce at a time.

4. Add water to the feed mixture to wet it.

5. Usea hand powered or mechanical (diesel / electricity) powered pelleting machine with the appropriate gauge; 3mm, 4mm, 6mm or 8mm, depending on the growth stage.

6. Dry the pellets in the sun and thereafter keep them in a cool dry place.(See fig. 6 & 7 for manual and mechanical pelleting machine).

7. Better still, you can use the dry pelleting machine to pellet the feed and spread it on a mat away from sunlight, to dry out the remaining moisture in the feed, before storage and use.

IMPORTANT NOTE

In compounding your feed there should be a balance between protein content and energy content. If the protein content is very high and that of energy is low, the fish will metabolize protein and use it for its energy requirements. By so doing, the growth of the fish may not correspond with your expectations. Likewise, if the feed energy content is too high, the fish may eat much feed and grow less because the protein requirement for growth is less in the feed

SAMPLE FEED FORMULATIONS FOR STARTER 2 - 3 MONTHS AND FINISHER 4 - 6 MONTHS


FORMULA: A, STARTER FEED (Per kilogram)	FORMULAR:B,FINISHER FEED (Per kilogram)
Danish Fish Meal 25%	Danish Fish Meal 15%
Soya cake 18%	Soya cake 17%
Ground Nut Cake 12%	Ground Nut Cake 13%
Wheat Offal 10%	Wheat offal 10%
Maize or Spent Grains 13%	Maize or Spent Grains 23%
Palm Kernel Cake 5%	Palm Kernel Cake 4%
Wheat Offal 10%	Wheat Offal 11%
Dialcium phosphate 3%	Dicalcium phosphate 3%
Bone Meal 2%	Bone Meal 2%
FishPremix 1%	Fish Premix 1%
Lysine 0.3%	Lysine 0.3%
Methionine 0.3%	Methionine 0.3%
Vitamin C, 0.025%	Vitamin C 0.025%

YOU HAVE A CHOICE

Sourcing feed to feed your fish is a matter of choice. You may choose to buy floating (extruded) feeds, locally produced pelleted feeds or buy the various condiments, and mill them by yourself. Furthermore, you can visit any feed mill with your formulation or use their in-house formulation. All you need to do is pay for the ingredients and milling services and they will mill, pellet and dry the feed for you. In this case, you will be rest assured of the quality of feed you are giving to your fish; unlike when you buy already pelleted ones whose formulation and quality, you cannot absolutely vouch for. Even if you insist on using pelleted feed to feed your fish, it is advisable to start them with the granulated 0.5, 0,8, 1.2 feed series or 2mm and 3mm floating feed at least for the first month of stocking until they can eat the pelleted feed comfortably.

PLEASE NOTE THAT
The information as contained herewith is based on the climatic and environmental conditions in Nigeria, which is a tropical country. Meanwhile, I will be quick to add that this article is an excerpt from the operational manual for commercial catfish farming titled AN ILLUSTRATED STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO COMMERCIAL CATFISH GROW OUT FARMING, also written by the author since 2003 now updated up to 2015. It will be useful to you; a beginner or an experienced farmer as a working and reference document. The soft copy (to be sent via email) COST 4,000 NAIRA, while the hard copy (to be sent via courier) goes for 6,500 naira. If you are interested please call: 08023620926; 09030301242 or send email to: festus.okpako88@gmail.com; festus,okpako@yahoo,com or foodscience.ng@gmail.com

PAYMENT DETAILS: Festus Okpako, first bank current account number 2006146470

Other available manuals:

# AN ILLUSTRATED STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO COMMERCIAL CATFISH HATCHERY FARMING. PRICE: 6,000 naira (soft copy); 8,000 naira (hard copy)

# A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO COMMERCIAL CATFISH DISEASE MANAGEMENT PRICE: 4,000 naira (soft copy); 6,000 naira (hard copy).

Please be reminded that all SOFT COPIES will be sent via email is available for now

QUALITY LOCAL CATFISH FEED PRODUCTION MADE EASY

In order to enhance rapid fish growth and development, good water quality and spacing must be combined with adequate high quality food for the fishes. This is because rapid fish growth is directly related to these and other factors. In fact the fishes must be provided with all food and nutrients that they need. The fish feed, especially the dry sinking pellets or floating feed, must be a balanced diet, consisting of protein, carbohydrate, fat & oil, vitamins and mineral salts.

You have a variety of feed options with which to feed the fishes at each growth stage. Irrespective of the option or type you are using, consideration must be made for a balanced diet with a feed crude protein content of at least 45% as at when the fishes are newly stocked, 40% as at three months and 35% beginning from the 5^th.There are three classes of feeds. They are natural, supplementary and complete feeds.

Examples of natural feeds include phytoplankton, zooplankton, snails, earthworms, insects, big ants, insects’ larva, maggots, termites, guppies, tadpoles and tilapia fries among many others. You can also use offal (wastes/trimmings such as heads, gills, intestines etc.) of different fishes, poultry and animals.. It should be noted that natural feeds grow fish better, more rapidly and makes them more active. Besides, they help to reduce your feed bill; especially maggots, guppies and tilapia. However, for the purpose of commercial farming, they should serve strictly as Supplementary feeds, that is, in addition to the complete commercial floating (extruded) or sinking (pelleted) feeds because you may not get enough to meet the demand of your fish.

Extruded (floating) complete commercial feeds are usually branded and are more expensive, but they are most reliable because of their stability in water for a long time and high nutrient content. They are readily available in most of the catfish farming centres nationwide. Examples are Coppens, Multifeed, Vitalfeed, Optimum, Zieglar, Aquamax, Top Feed, Sharp and a host of others.

A good number of pelleted feeds are also produced and branded by both local and foreign producers. They are a bit cheaper than floating feed; but less reliable because they disintegrate and dissolve faster in water and are thus subject to waste. However, the good news is that in almost all the catfish farming centres nationwide, local feed mills are available. They can produce for you based on your customized formulation at even a cheaper rate. Besides, you can also set up you own farm based feed mill. But my advice is: buy more of floating feed, at least, 70%.

However the purpose of this article is basically how you can source for or produce high quality cbut cheaper locally factory or farm made feed with which to feed your fish.

EXAMPLES OF DRY FEED INGREDIENTS

PROTEIN	CARBOHYDRATES	FAT & OIL	VITAMINS, MINERALS & DRUGS
Fish Meal	Maize	Vegetable oil	Fish Premix
Blood Meal	Wheat offal	Full Fat Soya	Methionine
Soya Beans (cake)	Millet	Palm Kernel Cake	Lysine
Groundnut Cake	Waste Flour		Oxytetracycline
Crayfish	Brewery Wastes		Vitamin C
Shrimps	Sorghum		Salt
	Corn offal		Binder/ attractants/preservatives

It is a combination of some of these ingredients and others, not listed above that are used to produce feeds; whether pelleted or extruded. However, in producing your own feed, you must be mindful of the feed ingredients that are relatively cheaper and readily available in your immediate environment.