RedBullHorn

...and made ฿5'000'000.- from 14'000kg. That work out to be roughly ฿350/kg. 14 tonnes out of 40 rai = 350kg/rai.

As mention before, concrete tank are different from raising in earthern pond. It will no doubt takes a longer time to raise them in concrete tank, more so in the cold season. I feed twice a day from the day they are release into the ponds up to 28 days or the end of #1 size pellets, then once a day(evening) till 60th day. The reason been that outbreak of disease usually occurs during the 2nd month of rearing like swollen of liver and gall which turn the whole fish "yellow", the Thai vet call it "Lok Dee San", this is result from one contributing factor: Over- Feeding or Force-Feeding. By feeding once a day will also "lenghten" them so they don't look big head, short and fat but smaller head and longer body which the wholesalers love~ (benefit to have more weigh on the body than on the head)

On the 61 days onward till harvest is the period i fatten them, back to twice a day feeding- late morning and evening. By evening i mean at dusk when the sky's turning dark... . At 1 Baht/ kilowatt, my whole farm is fitted with 30 energy saving twister bulbs (Philip's 23 watt) light on from dusk till dawn.

Clarias are predator of the night by nature and they are most active at night, feed them at night like i do if your pond have light.

Never mind if you can't see well, the moment they stop splashing around you'll sense that they'r full.

And as always, i'll multi-task--- One turn feeding and one turn drinking (beer Chang)

The key point here is feed till satiation...don't over feed! They are varocious but they'll stop when full then they will just burps (2 bubbles everytime they swim up and down, mass action)

90 days are for earthen pond, normal season.>4.5 months for earthen pond in cold season.

Concrete pond will takes 4.5 to 5 months, longer for cold season.

The standarn now is 95 sacks for 10'000 regardless of season for earthen pond using 2'-3' inches fingerlings.

15 size #1 and 80 size #2 pellets.

I have expanded ...now i'm doing 8 ponds + 1 water storage pond and internal waterway to feed water to all ponds.

I'm not raising any fish as i'm facing drought now but i took the chance to excavate the whole plot of 11 rai, luckily i still have 80 pigs to rely on for income

...so for the time being, i'll just do the rain dance on my free time.

All the best aitch52

Cheers

RBH

Thanks RBH

You're welcome. What would you like to know ? ...because this is an old post and my skill level have been upgraded 3 times since then... You can ask me now and i will give you the updated version.

You will be cheating if you soak it in a bowl of soup.

DerkMR, i thank you for your input and it is very much appreciated... Now i can decide on my next move. Thanks !

Double boiled pots and soup canisters for Chinese soup speciality. Use in the making of Herbal Black Chicken soup.

Black chicken is a typical Chinese exclusive, double boiled with herbs and spices we consume it as a form of tonic and also delicacy.

In my village, i don't know the price/kg now but back then a few years ago, "IF" a kai ban/kai muang is ฿50/kg, kai dam would be ฿80.

If kai bai/kai muang is ฿100/kg then kai dam would be ฿130/kg... My neighbour raised them and customers are Chin Hor (Chinese ethnic) from Doi Mae Salong and Chinese ethnic from rural village 30km from my place...As for me, i prefered the ones in Big C in ready packs.

Black colour from eyes to feet.

This is women tonic for the monthly blood loss...because the most important ingredient in this dish is "Dang Gui" aka

But i greedily eat them all...Don't care~ (It is soooooooo delicious !)

Thanks for the infor DerkMR, you are a star.

Plancton~ That's Spanish Derk... You are a shadow talent, keeping a low profile.

I enjoy your posts and i can spot talent in them.

Please post more often...

Well, as I moved off my small farm in July last year I only do a little "pet farming" now with my pla kat, so seldom I have experiences in the area and I practice little own farming now.

20131129_114523-2_a.jpg

A star? No but biologist in a former life.

Bye,

Derk

DerkMR, as a scientist and as an observer, what is your outlook and opinion of the aquaculture that is ongoing in present Thailand and concern in regards to small operations of the rest of Thailand like mine and Ozzydom...and what's your opinion in regards to AEC impacts coming into effect in the late 2015 in terms of free trade... in business point of view.

DerkMR, that's a very cool setup...

You are most welcome to visit my small farm...Just bring the Guinness...

RBH,

I would like to introduce myself briefly.I have lived and worked constantly in Thailand for 14 years now. During all these years I have helped hundreds of farangs here with everything from visa problems, police problems to translation service. I speak Thai fluently and love Thai people and the culture here. I do have long experience of how to do business in Thailand and also not how to do it. This has many times been learned the hard way, by paying for your misstakes.

However I am a newbie to the Thaivisa forum and also the catfish business. I am doing resarch from the internet almost dayly and have collected probably over 1000 pages of research reports, manuals etc. So a little bit of knowledge is established. The bad part is that the little I have learned is basically theories.

The absolute best way to gain knowledge, is to listen to people that has hands on experience. That help is priceless. It is therefore I am so grateful to hear your advice on fishfarming. It should also be a two way street, where information is getting back and forth in order to get gains for all involved parties. Thats what I thought was the purpose of this forum.

The way you write here, I can see that you know very much of fishbusiness as well as how Thai soceity works. It is not easy to come to this stage in Thailand. I am seriously interested in learning more from you and if we can agree on a reasonable amount, I would like to engage you to learn me the ABC of catfish farming.

Guys ! I believe i just hit the jackpot ! A customer...finally ! ...A lawyer i think~

My fee is... A SIX PACKER GUINNESS STOUT ! CANS will do just fine. I don't know where you could find it in Bangkok or in Chiang Mai maybe...

Once you have that... I will PM you a meeting location in Chiang Rai.

You will travel if you are dead serious to make it happen.

Cheers

P.S: I'm down to my last 3 cans...Dutyfree...

RBH I do believre I have messed up again. I wanted to cement the botom of the small pond. I even climbed down in ti and marked the level. Well you guessed it the did the sides as well. So just how bad is this going to be for Catfish?

I can always knock out the side walls if I have to. I wanted the bottom cement cause to catch the fish after pumping it out people would be a waist deep in mud

Netting was useless as they simply buried themselves in the mud

I told ya~~~

Dredging is the only way, you need to clean the pond bed but what you have done is just burying fossil fuel (you will be rich after a million years. ) and overtime the methane and ammonia will cause more damage than good and also greatly affect the fishes ADG.

The red colouration are plankton...I read somewhere that red colour is an indication that the plankton died. No ? ......

Not necessarily dead.

There are a lot of red coloured plancton as Daphnia and Moina.

Just go to an aquarium shop and buy a fine net (finer than the mosquito gaze) and you can get samples.

If you have a good food source for plancton like molasses you can also make money out of selling live plancton to aquarium shops - a quantity of walnut sized dry masse plancton retails for THB 20.-

Bye,

Derk

Thanks for the infor DerkMR, you are a star.

Plancton~ That's Spanish Derk... You are a shadow talent, keeping a low profile.

I enjoy your posts and i can spot talent in them.

Please post more often...

I live in the northernmost, Chiang Rai. But I've seen them as potted plants in my wife relative house in Chiang Mai.

My wife also told me the wild ones are trans-seeded by birds... make sense~

I will stop here on advise... you will have to face the music on your own from now on...

That's How You Learn ! (Pay to learn. )

There's a LOT more you do not know...It's not as easy as it looks...

Do more research...a lot of it~

My grass cutting crew just cutted them a week before....Growing wild near my ponds' dikes... they cutted so deep that i reckon it will survive in this cold season. Sorry mate~

My neighbour's prepared plot for the next paddy crop (across my wife's fish ponds)...and he hasn't been paid yet for the 1st crop that he pledged to government. "They will pay, i strongly believe...just have to wait. Well we got paid for past two years~" he cited.

David, it will last for a year or two. Replacing the bamboo path and roof panels, hopefully the storms don't blow the roof off first...

I'll be your slave...just get me the Guinness !

I don't know what to say... you will make enemy from my suggestions. Enemies perhaps once the word gets out... I recommend poisons. In my opinion you need to make things clear with the owner...

...Everyone should be encouraged to start, but do the research first, and a lot of it.

That is the truth... do the research first, a lot of it.

I was prepared back then... My ex-bosses came to meet me in Thailand and wanted me to fly to Dubai & Bahrain if things go south... I requested Business-Class...and a belly-dancing reception.

My wife was urging me "Close the farm now !!! Close the farm !..."

...The good thing is that the buyer comes with his own crew to do the harvest, so no extra staff is needed for harvesting.

The seining crew are not free, you have to bear the cost at between ฿200-฿250 per person per day. You will need 4-5 person team to seine net your pond. The good part is you don't need to go searching for workers but you still need a team from your own village to do your final pond clearing.

I have two thai friends in Saraburi that has been doing this for five years now. When they started, they lost money the first year due to lack of knowledge and experience. Nowdays they have learnt many lessons and are doing fine. It is like a coorporative there with 4 guys and about 20 ponds about 1000 sqm each in size. Gate price there is 45 baht at the moment. The good thing is that the buyer comes with his own crew to do the harvest, so no extra staff is needed for harvesting. I would be happy to make what they are making but think its possible to improve the numbers in a year or two after some learning period. I plan to dig 12 ponds but start with 4, then 4 more after a month or two and then the last 4 some time later to keep liquidity at a reasonable level. It still requires a lot of money to get started and pay for food until harvest time. Lets hope for the best and have plans for the worst. Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Don't rush...slow down slow down. You need to study the seasonal volatility first. Hot season sales is definitely a fast moving one but comes raining season market will slow down, coupled with start of buddish lent, school holidays , vegetarian festive and natural catch of river fishes flooding the wet market. You queue number for a date to harvest may be longer than usual as everybody is waiting for queue. Such is the case where by your fishes are all ready for harvest and while you wait in line, your fishes need to eat...so more feed is given...and you will be agitated and worry that your fishes will be too big for the wholsalers which will make things more difficult as market have slow down making selling the bigger sizes a little difficult and slow pace...

Cold season market movement is average...

Wholesalers are middleman, they wouldn't bother about your concerns... When you are stuck in the queue with 4 big ponds waiting to harvest... and if you time it wrong, you will miss you restocking date for the cold season fingerlings quota as the last batch of fingerlings is December. After that date, the brood stocks will discharge all their eggs.

You already have the fund to invest, the ponds are filled...Take things a step at the time.