Adeymorla:


To make better profits, its really not about the type of feed used, its more about its conversion to flesh when the fish consume it. We call it the feed conversion rate. Some expensive foreign feeds/ naija local floating we buy have low FCR so buying them is just like money down the drain. The fish will eat it but they will not grow fast. To reduce cost u have to increase FCR. Thats the only way

@micgray100 used 63bags of feed which amounts to 945kg of feed and got weight of 800kg at point of sales (according to his explanation) that I must confess is a fantastic FCR i.e 1:0.85.

His loses (not lose per say but wasting of profit to be made) started from the cost of seeds to cost of feed and cost of management BUT mainly the cost of feed.

Also FCR of feed does not depend on the feed only but also in other factors like quality of seed, water management amongst others but from his result I want to assume other management factors were good. Also a feed with low FCR will cost less than a feed with less FCR therefore on other to make profit you have to ensure you know the quality of your feed and the cost of getting that feed is worth the feed and not on the high for the quality of feed

Please admin add me to the WhatsApp group my number is 08128385224, thanks.

Ttalk:


Can we tie down FCR performance only to feed quality?

Please explain in detail to the house your opinion about increasing FCR

I agree that some expensive foreign feeds/Nigeria Local floating are out there claiming what they are not, but is there fish no farmers association in Nigeria? What about Standard Organisation of Nigeria? What about numerous Research Institutes in Fisheries and Aquaculture in Nigeria? Where do we see their result of research on different fish feed?

Unless there is a movement among different fish association to carry-out test on all popular feeds in Nigeria and publish the result for fish farmers to consider before making his decision and see that SON take appropriate action against Feed companies that has been deceiving young entrants, the loss will continue.

You Are very correct. FCR depends not only on feed quality but also on water management And oxygen uptake by the fish. That where aeration comes into play. Most fish farmers don't aerate their ponds. There is not way u can get low FCR without aeration.

As for local naija floating feed, Most of the are made with spent grains that have had all the nutrient removed. Its all chaff, no nutrient for the fish to use.

Etranshub:
@micgray100 used 63bags of feed which amounts to 945kg of feed and got weight of 800kg at point of sales (according to his explanation) that I must confess is a fantastic FCR i.e 1:0.85.

His loses (not lose per say but wasting of profit to be made) started from the cost of seeds to cost of feed and cost of management BUT mainly the cost of feed.

Also FCR of feed does not depend on the feed only but also in other factors like quality of seed, water management amongst others but from his result I want to assume other management factors were good. Also a feed with low FCR will cost less than a feed with less FCR therefore on other to make profit you have to ensure you know the quality of your feed and the cost of getting that feed is worth the feed and not on the high for the quality of feed

the seed i bought were Juveniles not Fingerlings... is my mistake... no fingerlins can weigh 10grams as specified... 10grams are already Juveniles

on the issue of wasting the profit.. it is a known fact that when writing a business plan.. all inputs into a business must be quantified. Quanifying Labour and water for 6 months isnt a bad idea... security is even not part of it... let us be realistic sometime...

Adeymorla:


You Are very correct. FCR depends not only on feed quality but also on water management And oxygen uptake by the fish. That where aeration comes into play. Most fish farmers don't aerate their ponds. There is not way u can get low FCR without aeration.

As for local naija floating feed, Most of the are made with spent grains that have had all the nutrient removed. Its all chaff, no nutrient for the fish to use.

You are on point bro. I only use Nigeria Floating for convenience sake and nothing more and rather depend result from my local feed. I wonder whether some people understand and have record of their input when you see them claiming these feeds are the best.

The fact remains that most ingredients that makes feed float contain lesser nutrients.

MOST NIGERIAN FEEDS ARE MAINLY FOR CONVENIENCE SAKE AND NOTHING MORE COMPARE TO ITS PRICE

Sir, do you produce your feed?

Of course I am being realistic here, let me analyse it one by one. 40/seed is too much even for juvenile you can get quality juvenile for as low as 25-30naira and next time it's better you buy fingerings for 10 naira trust me you won't spend up to 20k to raise them to juvenile

17k per bag of 2mm is too much you can try feeds like alar aqua which sells for 8500-9000 there about.

7500/ bag is on the high side for growout feed because that means 500/kg which is more than half of your selling price/kg. 300/kg will produce quality local feed that will give you same result (floating or sinking )

And like I said before you dont need labour for 1000 pieces of fish because it takes about 4-5 months to harvest and your worker will collect salary at the end of every month

micgray100:


the seed i bought were Juveniles not Fingerlings... is my mistake... no fingerlins can weigh 10grams as specified... 10grams are already Juveniles

on the issue of wasting the profit.. it is a known fact that when writing a business plan.. all inputs into a business must be quantified. Quanifying Labour and water for 6 months isnt a bad idea... security is even not part of it... let us be realistic sometime...

Etranshub:
@micgray100 used 63bags of feed which amounts to 945kg of feed and got weight of 800kg at point of sales (according to his explanation) that I must confess is a fantastic FCR i.e 1:0.85.

His loses (not lose per say but wasting of profit to be made) started from the cost of seeds to cost of feed and cost of management BUT mainly the cost of feed.

Also FCR of feed does not depend on the feed only but also in other factors like quality of seed, water management amongst others but from his result I want to assume other management factors were good. Also a feed with low FCR will cost less than a feed with less FCR therefore on other to make profit you have to ensure you know the quality of your feed and the cost of getting that feed is worth the feed and not on the high for the quality of feed

Sir, i dont think he wasted money on feed and if he is a newbie then he has no choice but to pay the price.

The fact remain that Feed price are too expensive even if the FCR is 1:1. You will discover that there exist little profit.

I remember raising that concern in one of my previous post and called on experts on this platform to come up with a solution to help the upcoming but less attention was paid to it. How can you buy feed at N500/kg with FCR of 1:1.5 and expect any tangible profit, Or buying feed that claim 40%CP when you can produce 48% with the same amount.

Sincerely it doesnt cost more than 350 to 400 to produce similar quality they sell at 500naira/kg. Now calculate different of 150 multiply by 900kg equals 135,000 add that to your profit and see the different

The only solution is outright local, supplemental model or combination. However to achieve this requires reasonable investment

Boss I agree with you totally, but I wasn't implying that he wasted money on feed I was just pointing out some places where he ought to have cut his cost of production just to ensure he makes profit,the 135k on the feed u stated is part and trust me it can even be more than that depending on how good you are with fish feed compounding. The FCR of the feed he used in this case is not bad at all.

About the cost of feed in the market I agree with you also but I can assure you the feed are not about to be cheaper anytime soon because if you are in the livestock feed business you will find out that commercial feed pass through a lot of people before they get to the end users and all this people want to make their own money the way forward for fish farmers is to make their own feed if you do not have the cost of procuring the needed machines then take your time to use feed Mills and learn about Fish nutrition to compound quality feed using the materials available at your disposal. But if you want to go to the market and buy designer feeds in shining bags for your fish, my brother one will only end up enriching the pocket of the people involved in getting the feed to the store where you buy them and the iya elejas

Ttalk:


Sir, i dont think he wasted money on feed and if he is a newbie then he has no choice but to pay the price.

The fact remain that Feed price are too expensive even if the FCR is 1:1. You will discover that there exist little profit.

I remember raising that concern in one of my previous post and called on experts on this platform to come up with a solution to help the upcoming but less attention was paid to it. How can you buy feed at N500/kg with FCR of 1:1.5 and expect any tangible profit, Or buying feed that claim 40%CP when you can produce 48% with the same amount.

Sincerely it doesnt cost more than 350 to 400 to produce similar quality they sell at 500naira/kg. Now calculate different of 150 multiply by 900kg equals 135,000 add that to your profit and see the different

The only solution is outright local, supplemental or combination. However to achieve this requires reasonable investment

micgray100:


the seed i bought were Juveniles not Fingerlings... is my mistake... no fingerlins can weigh 10grams as specified... 10grams are already Juveniles

on the issue of wasting the profit.. it is a known fact that when writing a business plan.. all inputs into a business must be quantified. Quanifying Labour and water for 6 months isnt a bad idea... security is even not part of it... let us be realistic sometime...

boss man, you actually made profit but you gave it out in the name of "labour ". you don't need any labour for 1000 fishes

Ttalk:


You are on point bro. I only use Nigeria Floating for convenience sake and nothing more and rather depend result from my local feed. I wonder whether some people understand and have record of their input when you see them claiming these feeds are the best.

The fact remains that most ingredients that makes feed float contain lesser nutrients.

MOST NIGERIAN FEEDS ARE MAINLY FOR CONVENIENCE SAKE AND NOTHING MORE COMPARE TO ITS PRICE

Sir, do you produce your feed?

Yes I do. Its a lot of work but it usually pays off when you see the fish performing. And I get good FCR too.

Adeymorla:


Yes I do. Its a lot of work but it usually pays off when you see the fish performing. And I get good FCR too.

That is good decision.

Let me also state some fact that makes farmers get into problem.

1. Most standard company produce feed for annual production.
With their feed your fish is expected to reach maturity between 10 to 12 months. But when you use thier feed and expect result in 5months you run into problem.

2. Their feed is composed using the standard spacing model for effective FCR. However most of us stock more than thier specification and expect the same result.

3. Palatability is not the sole determinant of quality feed. Your fish can consume 10kg of imported/Nigeria floating while other farmers' consume 7kg of local and still get better result. Concentrate are attractant that enhances feeding and not nutrient that make fish grow.
Farmers are always overjoy when they see fish frenzily consume floating feed not knowing that most of it ended as waste in the water. The fact remain that quality fish feeding is based on fish amino acid requirement and not on the concentrate input. The fact that children like sugary [attractant] items does not mean those items are the best for growth

4. You will be surprise that some Nigerian floating pollute water more than local feed yet there is general believe that local feed pollute water easily.

If i have gone too far please pardon me, i dont mean to run any business down but to state the fact

Number 3 is spot on and a major factor in this FCR issue, most of these feeds have high palatability due to the attractant used in them which is why some farmers will compound local feed for the first time with about 25-30% fish meal inclusion and they will still be complaining that it doesn't smell nice as the imported feeds. Meanwhile those ones smells nice due to the attractant not that they have higher fish meal or better than your local feed

Such farmer may have problems of acceptance of the feed by the fish the first week of feeding but that doesn't mean the imported feed they were using before is better in terms of nutrients and FCR they might end up going back to the costly imported feed.

Also this imported feeds have high level of anti oxidant for them to have longer shelf life considering the distribution chain which why you can store for long compared to our locally made feed.

Fish farming is a business and it's profitable you just have to learn the pros and con. There is a lot to learn to get it right tho, it pains me when I see people spend so much for 5months and have little or nothing to show for it at the point of harvest

Ttalk:


That is good decision.

Let me also state some fact that makes farmers get into problem.

1. Most standard company produce feed for annual production.
With their feed your fish is expected to reach maturity between 10 to 12 months. But when you use thier feed and expect result in 5months you run into problem.

2. Their feed is composed using the standard spacing model for effective FCR. However most of us stock more than thier specification and expect the same result.

3. Palatability is not the sole determinant of quality feed. Your fish can consume 10kg of imported/Nigeria floating while other farmers' consume 7kg of local and still get better result. Concentrate are attractant that enhances feeding and not nutrient that make fish grow.
Farmers are always overjoy when they see fish frenzily consume floating feed not knowing that most of it ended as waste in the water. The fact remain that quality fish feeding is based on fish amino acid requirement and not on the attractant input. The fact that children like sugary [attractant] items does not mean those items are the best for growth

4. You will be surprise that some Nigerian floating pollute water more than local feed yet there is general believe that local feed pollute water easily.

If i have gone too far please pardon me, i dont mean to run any business down but to state the fact

robonski15:
My fellow farmers and aspiring farmers fish business is no joke.. Its not what u toil with, its serious business.. Before u venture into it go and learn it practically.. Go to a good farm to see for youself.. Majority of the people that claim to be in the business are thieves.. They have sugar coated mouth to lure people into it and take their money...

I had to sqeeze out time to write this little piece for aspiring and practising farmers..

I am not here to sell any manual/books fingerlings or juvenile please.. Am here to answer any sort of question you need to know about catfish farming.. Feel free to ask me because I want the best for everybody,let's share ideas and make money together rather than exploiting people... So am all ears to your questions.. GOD BLESS YOU ALL..

visit www.agricnetwork.com to learn more about catfish farming business and also connect with other fish farmers. like us on [url]facebook.com/agricnetwork[/url]

God bless you and increase the work of you hands

robonski15:
My fellow farmers and aspiring farmers fish business is no joke.. Its not what u toil with, its serious business.. Before u venture into it go and learn it practically.. Go to a good farm to see for youself.. Majority of the people that claim to be in the business are thieves.. They have sugar coated mouth to lure people into it and take their money...

I had to sqeeze out time to write this little piece for aspiring and practising farmers..

I am not here to sell any manual/books fingerlings or juvenile please.. Am here to answer any sort of question you need to know about catfish farming.. Feel free to ask me because I want the best for everybody,let's share ideas and make money together rather than exploiting people... So am all ears to your questions.. GOD BLESS YOU ALL..

visit www.agricnetwork.com to learn more about catfish farming business and also connect with other fish farmers. like us on [url]facebook.com/agricnetwork[/url]

God bless you and increase the work of you hand

for the whatsapp group,you can add this brother 08125112975, i mean for fishfarming group

pls house I need used taupallin pond that can contain 300 catfish for sale,contact me if you have .08030643812 .

micgray100:


the seed i bought were Juveniles not Fingerlings... is my mistake... no fingerlins can weigh 10grams as specified... 10grams are already Juveniles

on the issue of wasting the profit.. it is a known fact that when writing a business plan.. all inputs into a business must be quantified. Quanifying Labour and water for 6 months isnt a bad idea... security is even not part of it... let us be realistic sometime...

I think d scale is small for you to factor those cost. With present 'realities'.

Ok, good people of Nigeria. I want to go into fingerlings and juvenile production full time. I need help on how to reach large market

Hello house, can someone help me out with what is the price of 2,000 ltrs baff for fish and how many table size fish can it contain

Where can I get original Artemia in Lagos and how much does it cost

Kudos on this thread, it is very thorough and accurate.

I've followed this thread closely and used some of the information that I learnt to progress my own project. This experience has helped me put together a detailed blog post, which I recently published on my blog. You can check it out here - How to Start Fish Farming in Nigeria

I'm sure you will find some of the answers that you are looking. Please feel free to give me your honest feedback.

Please keep up the great work.

Hello house, can someone help me out with what is the price of 2,000 ltrs baff for fish and how many table size fish can it contain

[quote author=Herbaleno post=55834421] if you are around Calabar, I'm available. 07037357616[/quote
Interested in Calab

[quote author=Herbaleno post=55834421] if you are around Calabar, I'm available. 07037357616[/quote
Interested in Calabar

celloman:
Hello house, can someone help me out with what is the price of 2,000 ltrs baff for fish and how many table size fish can it contain

A used 2,000 Liters fish tank is for sale, it can

hold 250 - 400 table size catfish depending on

how good you can handle them.

If interested contact me on 08022456638 (call & WhatsApp) and 08037456799 (call)

Onyireen:
Where can I get original Artemia in Lagos and how much does it cost

Try poultry support at Agege..

amyzon:
Ok, good people of Nigeria. I want to go into fingerlings and juvenile production full time. I need help on how to reach large market

. Produce good seed market is readily available.

For practical training on catfish seed production contact chilanfarmz on 07065874135.

@Robonski.
Try poultry support at Agege.
Thanks

@ Robonski15
Add me up on catfish watsapp group on 07068111365 .
I was there as committee member to verify localisation of catfish processing company, before my phone folded up.

Please I need help from a caring farmer ; I am a new farmer with two earthen pond. I wish to raised 500 fingerlings, so I wish to know the current price of fingerlings, where to get good products and how much it will cost me to run the farm. Also I need your advise in all other and necessary things I need to know as a new farmer. Thanks and God bless