I have been in the Catfish business for a while and I would like to share some common problems that most beginners and even the the experienced catfish farmers don't take cognizance of during the stocking, feeding and harvesting of the catfish. At first when I started catfish production I got my capital back, but subsequent production began to dwindle until I got to understand that understanding fish behavior is very important for optimum production.

While lots of questions have asked overtime on how lucrative fish farming is, how to venture into catfish farming and make profits, I will be sharing my experiences and some success tips for those who are into or wants to go into catfish farming,  making use of them will definitely give you the confidence to venture into it while reducing mortality rate and boosting production. Put on your seat belt and ride along.

1. The seedlings to be stocked must be viable:

whichever type of production you want to go into, whether juvenile, fingerlings or post fingerlings, the seedlings must be the right seeds. the length of these post fingerlings seedlings must not be not lesser than 6cm. They must be fast growing and resilient.  You could compare with the stocks that are available on the source farm in terms of when they were stocked, that would give you an idea how the stocked would perform in terms of growth and resilience.

However, its important to take into consideration local conditions such as the quality of water, temperature, during the production processes.

2. Avoid Overstocking:

It is very important that you know the capacity of your pond or vats. The vat or pond feels like big enough for the fishes as at the time of stocking due to their sizes but as they become bigger, they occupy moore spaces and in turn reduces the free spaces in the pond. they are then choked up which will not give room for growth and of course cannibalism could occur before sorting. leading to lower  production and invariably lower profit.

3. Feed your Catfish very well:

For achieving success a well structured feeding program must be put in place. you have got to avoid exhaustion of feed especially in the middle of production. Feeding takes about 80% of the cost of production and must not be handled lightly as this has an impact on our yield. I will advice that you should calculate your cost and only stock the number of fishes you can cater for across a period of production. It's important to use hgh-quait catfish pellets that provides necessary vitamins and minerals for the healthy growth of the fishes.

You could work with your feed supplier to develop a feeding schedule based on the age and size of the fishes putting into consideration feed cost, and most importantly avoid overfeeding.

4. Water quality management:

You may be reminded that catfish are aquatic animals, they need water to survive so managing its quality is important. I must say that a lot of water is needed when it come to fish farming. Changing of water is necessary as they may die off in dirty water. Fish health is closely related with pH, Oxygen levels, temperature and ammonia concentration of the water. When quality of water gets low you  would see different behaviours from the fishes like coming to the surface for some  oxygen and lack of clarity on the surface water.

Maintaining quality of the water will reduce the likelihood of diseases and ensure optimal growth rates. I will advice that you change your water every 1 to 2 days and keep its record. But you can do more frequently depending on the population of the fishes or how dirty the pond is at a time.

Final Thoughts:

Catfish production offers great potential for profitability which can be achievable by following these guidelines; careful selection of seedlings, adequate timely feeding and daily checking of water quality towards maintaining the quality of water. With this you can build a sustainable catfish farming operation, a thriving business that can meet subsistence and commercial demands.

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