Setting Up Ponds For Farming Pla Nin

[Mitker]

They are indeed too big for feeding directly so maybe i should just try to see if the'd go for "laab hoi"

Must be full of proteins

Otherwise for the ducks but they will come in a second stage

[Jotham79]

You can rig a couple of lights over the pond and let them feed on the bugs. You can also feed fine rice polishings ( not the medium) by just throwing the powder out over the water and let them filter feed the powder of the surface. I would only try a small amout of land snails at first to see how it goes and would prefer to use freshwater snails. You can get leaves from cabbage, coliflower, brocolli,,,,,,ect but make sure you don't over do it (you can mess up your water) and and see that you rinse the leaves first. I was getting large baskets of leaves from the market and ended up killing about 100 of my pla nin.

[Mitker]

Thanks for the advices

Just experimented both the land snails and the water snails the last days. They quite like them without being crazy about it (just like rice left-overs) but i want to experiment more on this. Mostly that I have been warned that the aquatic snails quickly become invasive

I also tried some salad/cabbage leaves but it looks like too hard for them to bite (they're still young)

The water quality seems to remain stable: we put an aquaponics section along the pond and have lots of aquatic plants floating on the surface. plenty of roots for filtering

I'd like to try the lights over the pond too

[David48]

You can rig a couple of lights over the pond and let them feed on the bugs. You can also feed fine rice polishings ( not the medium) by just throwing the powder out over the water and let them filter feed the powder of the surface. I would only try a small amout of land snails at first to see how it goes and would prefer to use freshwater snails. You can get leaves from cabbage, coliflower, brocolli,,,,,,ect but make sure you don't over do it (you can mess up your water) and and see that you rinse the leaves first. I was getting large baskets of leaves from the market and ended up killing about 100 of my pla nin.

Mate, did we meet at an Isaan Farmers Meeting?

I've only ever been to one which was held at Cl Packdee's place.

[Jotham79]

You can rig a couple of lights over the pond and let them feed on the bugs. You can also feed fine rice polishings ( not the medium) by just throwing the powder out over the water and let them filter feed the powder of the surface. I would only try a small amout of land snails at first to see how it goes and would prefer to use freshwater snails. You can get leaves from cabbage, coliflower, brocolli,,,,,,ect but make sure you don't over do it (you can mess up your water) and and see that you rinse the leaves first. I was getting large baskets of leaves from the market and ended up killing about 100 of my pla nin.

Mate, did we meet at an Isaan Farmers Meeting?

I've only ever been to one which was held at Cl Packdee's place.

I haven't been lucky enough to make it to one. Untill 4 months ago, I was away alot and most of the the meetings are too far away. I would have loved to seen Cl Packdees set up. Now I have the quail and chickens it will be difficult to get away.

[ozzydom]

Hi , fellow fisho,s,due to the ToT line that I waited 7 years for becoming so overloaded and useless that I had it disconnected (hence no internet at farm).my only chance to post is during shopping visits to Udon Thani.

Tot are now trying to part me with nearly 30k to lay fibre optic to the farm ,which I am baulking at ,so will wait for another solution.

[rickudon]

My wife has a 3 rai pond; a bit shallow, it is of the moat and island style, with the island drying out in May. Draining is not very practical due to its size and because the last foot of water gets rapidly replaced by water seeping out of the clay soil. I know not ideal and it has many wild fish, but the main problem is fish just do not grow - plaa duk and plaa nin stocked last year seem to be the same size as they were in March! It is not heavily stocked - about 3-400 plaa nin, ?-200 plaa duk (don't see many any more) and maybe about 100 other fish of various types, not counting the small stuff (which are not plaa nin). i have tried fertilising pond and last winter we fed small quantities of pellets, for only slow growth. Other neighbouring ponds have fish double the size without feeding. I suspect one problem is the floating mats of grass on the central island and the margin just suck up all the nutrients in the pond - algal blooms very rare.

Currently past month feeding duck shit to fertilise pond and rice bran and maize meal as supplementary food - although at low rates. So far no change. I could massively increase the fertilisation and food but suspect it would cost far more than the value of fish gained.

This is not intended to be a commercial venture, but would like to see fish big enough to eat! I reckon that the annual 'production' of fish harvested is only about 10-20 kilos per rai ....

Finally, among the other fish are a few carp and Pacu. These do grow quite well up to about 500 grams, (although this takes one year) and very few fish exceed a kilo.

Edited November 30, 2014 by rickudon