Growing Pla Duk

[Bluetongue]

Recently the Poo Yai Bahn gave everyone who had a house number a 500 litre ong or cement water tank, hundreds of Pla Duk fingerlings, and several 50kg bags of feed. That is if you wanted it. I gave mine to sister in law. Nobody here eats Pla Duk that I have seen. In our housing area now I have to put up with repetitive water changes, which means letting the smelly water out over where we walk etc. This occurs every couple of days. The amount of water consumed is at my estimate 4000 litres a week from our one bore for 6 houses. None of these people have any experience or idea whatsoever about fish farming, one entire tank was killed due to petrol poisoning but I was not allowed to say anytthing for fear of retribution on the child involved. Every time they empty the tanks there are casualties.

They think they are going to be able to sell these fish at a profit, our bore pump is electric, the fish are slowly growing, I am convinced there is no profit, I've told my family this but am ignored.

I am worried that the bore faced with this extra demand might run out. Any bright ideas.

[jubby]

I suspect these bright Ideas are more to do with self-sufficency than for making a profit. The 'sufficiency Economy' type thing.

probably run at a loss if you have to pay for your water.

I think the people who make money run huge ponds with huge amounts of fish.

on a side note, I have a 1000 ltr ong outside the Kitchen window, just use it to control the water from the roof during a downpour. So it just sits there doing nothing most of the year. I had an Idea that maybe I would put some Catfish in there also . Man, that Catfish Food stinks. . The bright Idea lasted a week until we couldn't sleep due to the stench.

[slapout]

Watched a show last night on discovery or history. Alligators are the way to go. The food for them probably smells as bad as fish food but they could be used to control soi dogs.

They butcher at 4 foot in length in about 2.5 years of age. This size compares to 7 year in the wild. A catfish farm was also shown, They feed 6 tons of food a day to their fish (huge farm) The cleaning and fillet was done by machine. Sure made the operations we hear about here look small.

[jubby]

Watched a show last night on discovery or history. Alligators are the way to go. The food for them probably smells as bad as fish food but they could be used to control soi dogs.

They butcher at 4 foot in length in about 2.5 years of age. This size compares to 7 year in the wild. A catfish farm was also shown, They feed 6 tons of food a day to their fish (huge farm) The cleaning and fillet was done by machine. Sure made the operations we hear about here look small.

Soi Dogs Mmmm. I'm interested . So how many Aligators to a 500l or 1000l Ong ?

[Bluetongue]

I suspect these bright Ideas are more to do with self-sufficency than for making a profit. The 'sufficiency Economy' type thing.

probably run at a loss if you have to pay for your water.

I think the people who make money run huge ponds with huge amounts of fish.

on a side note, I have a 1000 ltr ong outside the Kitchen window, just use it to control the water from the roof during a downpour. So it just sits there doing nothing most of the year. I had an Idea that maybe I would put some Catfish in there also . Man, that Catfish Food stinks. . The bright Idea lasted a week until we couldn't sleep due to the stench.

Yeah the brand of catfish food here is called attract, but hey the dogs will eat it, maybe soidog fattened on catfish food fed to crocodiles, hang on wouldn't work here, too many dogs disappear already if we fattened them the foreign labourers wouldn't eat anything else. they heard about a problem dog we had here and came around offering 200baht, I told them to go away

[jubby]

200 bahts a bargain. Its only 100 in our village. I'm serious unfortunately

[RedBullHorn]

Jubby, the feed pellet for catfishes doesn't sink...its the water that sink , a simple and realistic solution to this and prolong water change duration, let the sunlight shine into the water. Not much...20-30% sunlight and 70-80% shade.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/370402-stinky-water-in-fish-tank/page__view__findpost__p__3658968

More info on link above.

P.S : The going rate in my village is 200 for around 15kg, 100 for less than 12kg

Edited February 21, 2011 by RedBullHorn

[ray23]

Interesting the locals here dig fair size ponds and let the rain take care of refills.

We are taking a shot at it with Thalapia. But, not in a housing area. 1000 fish 300 baht, The expense will be in the feed cost.

[Mosha]

With Nile Tilapia you'll never run out of fish, and being Cichlids they look after the young.

[jamescollister]

With Nile Tilapia you'll never run out of fish, and being Cichlids they look after the young.

I know nothing about fish, but had a new fish pond dug a few months ago, which is now full. It's free around here to hare to have the hole dug. throught in 500 catfish. Which is the only fish that have any taste in this area. Will these Nile fish live with the cat fish and do they taste OK. I am not going into the fish business, just part of my desertification to avoid starvation. plan. Jim

[Mosha]

I suppose it depends how big the catfish get. Some people say Thais don't like the taste and prefer salt water fish, and won't buy Pla Nin. Don't we all, but I've seen what Thais call nets on their trawlers, a mosquito wouldn't escape. Our local Tesco sells Tilapia so someone must like it. Farmed and fresh water fish will be all that is left before long. Folks round here do have both in their ponds, and if you like fishing the Tilapia put up a good scrap on light tackle.

[ray23]

Here they salt the outsides and BBQ Talapia, tastes pretty good that way. I picked them for two reasons one Aussie Dom has a good thread on them to walk me through it. In the states a friend went to the Salton Sea caught some small ones. Stuck em in a stand up pool fed them dry cat food. Within six months he had ran out of room. So they must tough little critters so stand a better chance of not killing them.

The way Dom has them sit up it would appear to really cut down food costs. Right now I'm learning and the first pond will act a experiment to learn with. One pf the things I'm going to run into is fish ponds are plentiful in Udon. I won't have enough to sale commercially.

Maybe the wife can sit a co op and attract some commercial buyers. It's a hobby for me and hopefully will leave her with a way to make a few baht when I check out. If nothing else she should eat good

By the way the source to buy the fish was the Government fish advisory in Udon.