WHY YOU MAY NOT MAKE AS MUCH PROFIT FROM FISH FARMING AS EXPECTED

I appreciate all and sundary in fish farming business and those aspiring to become dish farmers someday.

I have met a number of persons with strong wish to rear fish, basically, because they were told that someone bought a big car after an harvest.

Well, let me spoil your mind a little and I think it is better I do now so that it can serve as preventive pills against the shock ahead of starting. Plainly speaking, fish farming is not as speedily lucrative as you have been marooned to believe.

A lot of people have started with great enthusiasm, but, shut down indefinitely, and now nursing the losses. Why? You may wish to know. I, ll tell you right away.

ONE, poor wholistic investigation about the business itself. A lot of people have met with cajolers who had deceived them. The information at their disposal with which they started was faulty, weak, lack requisite facts and figures.

TWO, Poor cost -benefit analysis. Whoever comes to you to start a fish farm, tell him to reveal to you in details how much #1 can generate, if so invested and when it is likely possible to get such amount and what and what conditions should be born in mind before such can come.

THREE, input-output lag. When one starts with too little size of production, there is a problem of input waste...will expansate if you demand for it. Too large scale also, in relative terms, without a commensurate input will crash output

FOUR, Copying-the-rich-syndrome. Rich fish farmers don't work with plans. They don't even care whether a profit is being made or not. Their's is to see fish playing around in the ponds. As such, they don't have performance account, and so, don't even know if loss is even being made. People like that will confuse you. They don't feel the loss if any. Some famers copy their ways and so, fagged out.

FIVE, poor monitoring. Every agribusiness has its own routine management activities. Farmer that hardly had time for proper feeding, water management, medication and performance assessments make more loss than one can imagine.

SIX, weakness from first production performance. Because of the mind set of, "now, I have hit a jackpot through fish farming", a lot of people feel so bad after first harvest. Many don't even bother restocking. It does not work that way. Business plan would have prepared your mind adequately. Short run profit expectation is a near zero possibility even in the face of variable cost consideration.

SEVEN, poor marketing strategies. The strength of all productions giants is in the consumption of their product. A lot have produced and sell not, and so, forced to release the fishes to cabals in the business, who pay just any amount noticing the desperation to sell at all cost.

EIGHT, poor water management skills. Too early or too late water changing may reduce growth performance, disease invasion, oxigination, etc.

NINE, wrong pond designs. Ooh, some ponds are sorry cases. Honestly. I don't know where people get their designs from. Terribly bad. Poor plumbing system, pond fertilisation zero...abeg, abeg...I no fit shout. Some even over or understock their ponds. There is a scientific syocking ratio for every pond size. But, many people don't know this.

TEN, security lapses. Carelessness has plunged a lot of people into loss. Pilferers are everywhere. Many farmers had bitten their fingers as a result of loss to pilferers. Thieves usually invade farms. Security is very important.

ELEVEN, poor feeding mechanism. I need someone to reveal to me here how feeding fish till they are tired is more economical than feeding by average weight. Everything has scientific structures. There is the "economics of feeding" that a lot of farmers don't understand.

You might have been told that foreign feed in combination local one is more economical, but, does that guarantee optimum performance? Farmers that are not so groomed on this, make great losses.

Let me stop here. I expect comments and questions...

Thanks for reading.

...

are cat fish the only fish people rare

I see a lot of lagosian living in the rural part venture into cat fish farming

I want to ask if Titus sharwa etc can be rared and sold to people the way cat fish is sold

JOOHEL:
are cat fish the only fish people rare

I see a lot of lagosian living in the rural part venture into cat fish farming

I want to ask if Titus sharwa etc can be rared and sold to people the way cat fish is sold

me also want to know

Bros. U Are on pt on many issues but most farmers listen to every Tom, dick n Harry dat is growing fish and not knowing if he is a professional n so fall into d same wahala. Feeding till fish is OK, is adopted so as to reduce technical issues for most of d uneducated. U have to make it easy for dem. Mixing foreign n local is OK but depending on type of feed like multi/aquamax bc d hav oil n make fish add fat or Zeigler, coppens /vital or crown /Zeigler, durantee if u need lean meat. U didn't talk about specie wch is key.

pls, help me. I stocked 1000 pieces of POST- juvenile. after a-month I sort and count. I realise the are just 500...
at 2nd month two weeks. I noticed they drop 1 by 1 daily... have change the water and give them drugs..
now am not sure they will b up to 300 @third month.... can I still get recoup my capital after selling them off...

There are many challenges in fish farming. Truly, fish farming is lucrative but that is if it is well managed.

There are a hundred errors in the business that can be made that will guarantee failure. Many factors have caused many fish farmers to close down

I want to start with feeding. Many fish farmers have been misled to believe that they must use foreign feed which comes at a very high cost, hugely increases the cost of production and affects the bottom line. This is a product of ignorance. You can rear your catfish from about age 6 weeks upward using local feeds and attain table size(1 Kg & above) before week 20. The local fish feed formulation i am referring to has 18 ingredients in it. based on our experience, it cost us N250.00 local formulated feeds to produce a catfish weighing over 1 KG before or by age 20 weeks which we sold at N650.00 per kg in Ondo state.

2ndly, we use earthen ponds constructed near a river. we do not spend a penny pumping water into the ponds which many farmers do especially those who use concrete ponds and incur high costs on diesel. Pumping water costs during the rearing period gravely or adversely affects the bottom line of the fish farmer. In our own system, we dam the river at one point and laid pipes connecting the river to each of the ponds in a recirculatory system that takes in water and also releases water out of each pond. throughout the year, we do not spend as much as one naira to pump water into any of our ponds.

More details later

knowledge4:
There are many challenges in fish farming. Truly, fish farming is lucrative but that is if it is well managed.

There are a hundred errors in the business that can be made that will guarantee failure. Many factors have caused many fish farmers to close down

I want to start with feeding. Many fish farmers have been misled to believe that they must use foreign feed which comes at a very high cost, hugely increases the cost of production and affects the bottom line. This is a product of ignorance. You can rear your catfish from about age 6 weeks upward using local feeds and attain table size(1 Kg & above) before week 20. The local fish feed formulation i am referring to has 18 ingredients in it. based on our experience, it cost us N250.00 local formulated feeds to produce a catfish weighing over 1 KG before or by age 20 weeks which we sold at N650.00 per kg in Ondo state.

2ndly, we use earthen ponds constructed near a river. we do not spend a penny pumping water into the ponds which many farmers do especially those who use concrete ponds and incur high costs on diesel. Pumping water costs during the rearing period gravely or adversely affects the bottom line of the fish farmer. In our own system, we dam the river at one point and laid pipes connecting the river to each of the ponds in a recirculatory system that takes in water and also releases water out of each pond. throughout the year, we do not spend as much as one naira to pump water into any of our ponds.

More details later

the issue has been with the fact that Nigerians hoard information but go to YouTube for free info what an irony.
wish u could share your facts and challenges