Starting A Fish Farm

[ozzydom]

Frog feed, <2mm pellet, 37% protein, 20kg sack

That's what i'm using.

Poison will evapourate in 5-7 sunny days, lime and fill up after the days mention and like Ozzy said, season your filled pond for a week to two.

Great minds think alike RBH.

At your riped age of >70... sir, you lead i follow...

When you get to old age ,it just means that you have made more mistakes than the young ones

[tingtong]

or you had more time to get the things right, finally?

who knows??

(i am on the younger side still, though)

[RedBullHorn]

...and where is the OP ??? Looks like his cover's blown ?

Edited September 28, 2011 by RedBullHorn

[tingtong]

today changed the water again on the catfish fingerlings.

more than before i saw that the size of them seem to vary quite a bit...

the biggest ones might be as much as 3x the size of the smallest, a few that seem not to grow at all since 3-4 inch a month ago.

is this normal? thought they would grow more uniform when feed in a smaller space, like a pool, vs lake?

else on the good size, the loss is only 3 fingerlings ( as far as i know) over almost a month, so, survival rate isnt bad so far.

[RedBullHorn]

It's been a while...how's catfishes doing.

Fingerlings will break size within 7-10 days, 2''-3'' will becomes 3''-4''....and they will break size again every 7-10 days untill it reaches the size of your big toe (80-100gm), then it is difficultly visable to judge by inches, we will more on to judge by how many fingers is the size of it head (Big Oui), like 2 fingers wide at approximately 25cm, it is about 5/6 fishes/kg, slightly more than 2 fingers wide at 28-30cm is about 4/5 fishes/kg. 3 fingers wide at 30-33cm is guarantee a 3 fishes/kg, 4 fingers is a more than 2 but below 1 fish/kg.

The skull line at the back of the head that weld between the head and the upper body, the upper body shouldn't sink below that line like a step, if it is, it only mean the fish is skinny, good size but inferior weigh. If it is well fed, you should see a robust figure that resemble a pla chon...even body with red tinge on its pectoral and caudal fin.

[tingtong]

hi RBH,

the catfishes doing fine, i think. it seems that by now the initial amount of feed i had for them doubled about...try to feed them 2x a day, as much as they seem to eat...

their size is definately bigger then before, but there is some not seem to grow as fast as the other.

till date the loss is in line/better than expectation, so far i think we lost about 10 fingerlings. (had 10 extra, 510 at start).

in the meantime with the tilapia trial i am not so sure if it is good or bad, made the mistake that released them to the lake, just like that, since got home really very late, and had no feeling to prepare anything to them...a thing i surely regret now.

i dont have too much visual signs when trowing feed there, though they are relative small ones, 1cm or so, what Nam Sai sells, and my eyes arent hawkeyes neither...so, either they are there, or there and feeding some migrating pla chon, idk.

next time i will do different for sure, a lesson in it, and since only 1000 baht the fishes, and some food, it isnt overly pricey lesson at least. of course i keep giving food at least till the first 20kg bag finishes, then decide on the rest.

[RedBullHorn]

Cold season approaching soon, they will slow down on food...it's a natural instinct, they will not eat as much, not because they not hungry but their metabolism just slow down and they don't digest as normal like non cold weather. They tend to keep the food as if there's won't be another meal

[tingtong]

That is ok, work (outside Thailand) comes soon enough now, so, they will have 5 months time to grow to final stage: selling.

Not sure when they will be big enough for my wife to make a catfish meal to herself though, but suspect that time is not far far away.

[ozzydom]

hi RBH,

the catfishes doing fine, i think. it seems that by now the initial amount of feed i had for them doubled about...try to feed them 2x a day, as much as they seem to eat...

their size is definately bigger then before, but there is some not seem to grow as fast as the other.

till date the loss is in line/better than expectation, so far i think we lost about 10 fingerlings. (had 10 extra, 510 at start).

in the meantime with the tilapia trial i am not so sure if it is good or bad, made the mistake that released them to the lake, just like that, since got home really very late, and had no feeling to prepare anything to them...a thing i surely regret now.

i dont have too much visual signs when trowing feed there, though they are relative small ones, 1cm or so, what Nam Sai sells, and my eyes arent hawkeyes neither...so, either they are there, or there and feeding some migrating pla chon, idk.

next time i will do different for sure, a lesson in it, and since only 1000 baht the fishes, and some food, it isnt overly pricey lesson at least. of course i keep giving food at least till the first 20kg bag finishes, then decide on the rest.

Hi tt, just curious, what food are you tryng to start your Pla Nin on ? you mention a 20 kg bag .

[tingtong]

Hi Ozzydom,

the food is the suggested 37% protein frog food

[RedBullHorn]

That is ok, work (outside Thailand) comes soon enough now, so, they will have 5 months time to grow to final stage: selling.

Not sure when they will be big enough for my wife to make a catfish meal to herself though, but suspect that time is not far far away.

In Thailand, if it is out in the stick, no fishes are too SMALL enough to make a meal. Once...the grand-MIL was happily scooping up my 3'' fingelings to wrap in banana leafs couple with spices and lemon grass, the wife said she asked whether if she could have some to cook a dish....

"Some !" ...She took close to 200 fingerling

[highlander403]

guys nephew has recently put 500 fingerling pla-duc in our fish pond and i was wondering if they eat bugs insects etc, i thought about putting up an electric bug zapper above the pond if they did.

regards scotty

[tingtong]

i think they eat them, though they seem to be happier to eat the floating pellets

at me, tilapias get the major share of the bugs for sure. they seem to spend most time on the surface, anyway.

[RedBullHorn]

Don't need zapper, just a white bulb (energy saving type 11watt) on a bamboo pole posted over the edge of pond dyke will do...bugs are just supplement, you still need the pellet feed.

[highlander403]

thanks for the replys, bulb already in place

scotty

[necronx99]

fair, after all our little farm is also not on a main road, but between paddy and sugarcane fields, out of he village, no driving by chances.

We were fortunate in that our land is in a group of villages and only 75 metres from a main road so some signage and directions that even Thais can follow sorted that possible problem.

We also have numerous small food sellers that we supply daily and for a small discount we were allowed to put up "Pla Nin supplied by ........."signs at these outlets.

We used to have a couple of months where we were sold out of fish, but a few ads on the local radio station when we resumed selling brought our customers back.

This year I have changed the system and installed a nursery pond which is kept stocked with fry so that as a pond is caught out we can restock with advanced fingerlings which I anticipate will cut the time period from pond stocking to ready for sale to about 5 months.

Having available water for regular water changes and top up plus aeration will ,according to my experiments allow us two years between pond emptying and cleaning.

Hi Ozzy, I'm liking the idea of a pond, water is a concern to though. Is there any point in my continuing to research this if I don't have access to a river or klong for water?

[sokmeister]

Hi Guys,

I haven't posted in a few years...gots to get the house payments down far enough before i can leave and try a life of farming like we once did before the war in cambodia. We have two plots of land, 65ha in kompong cham, 75ha near sisophon where 50ha gots 3plus years of eucalyptus, 25 has been cleared and plowed. I'm heading to down to visit and recon a 17ha plot northeast of siam reap closer to thai border.

I would really like to meet all of you one of these days, if anything bbq, charred meat, and beer session just to listen to you fish farm veterans.

love reading all your comments and wisdom of fish rearing... I would really like to try my hands on tilapia and catfish. There is a guy in florida who started tilapia in a big plastic pool, don't think i can do the same in Portland, Oregon...too dayum cold!

Thanks guys and keep on posting. Thanks TT, by the time I start. I'll be to you as you to RBH and Ozzy now.

Sok

[motorcrazy]

Hi Guys,

I haven't posted in a few years...gots to get the house payments down far enough before i can leave and try a life of farming like we once did before the war in cambodia. We have two plots of land, 65ha in kompong cham, 75ha near sisophon where 50ha gots 3plus years of eucalyptus, 25 has been cleared and plowed. I'm heading to down to visit and recon a 17ha plot northeast of siam reap closer to thai border.

I would really like to meet all of you one of these days, if anything bbq, charred meat, and beer session just to listen to you fish farm veterans.

love reading all your comments and wisdom of fish rearing... I would really like to try my hands on tilapia and catfish. There is a guy in florida who started tilapia in a big plastic pool, don't think i can do the same in Portland, Oregon...too dayum cold!

Thanks guys and keep on posting. Thanks TT, by the time I start. I'll be to you as you to RBH and Ozzy now.

Sok

Farming catfishes its alot easyer than tilapai.

The catfish its 1000 times stronger than the tilapai,grow faster,its indipent how you feeding!

And they are realy strong when they past the 100 gram each fish.

Fore me you can never loose your money,bt cats farming.

I start to doing now catfish breeding.

If you like ,i can try some nice film video to send.

On the african way.

[ozzydom]

fair, after all our little farm is also not on a main road, but between paddy and sugarcane fields, out of he village, no driving by chances.

We were fortunate in that our land is in a group of villages and only 75 metres from a main road so some signage and directions that even Thais can follow sorted that possible problem.

We also have numerous small food sellers that we supply daily and for a small discount we were allowed to put up "Pla Nin supplied by ........."signs at these outlets.

We used to have a couple of months where we were sold out of fish, but a few ads on the local radio station when we resumed selling brought our customers back.

This year I have changed the system and installed a nursery pond which is kept stocked with fry so that as a pond is caught out we can restock with advanced fingerlings which I anticipate will cut the time period from pond stocking to ready for sale to about 5 months.

Having available water for regular water changes and top up plus aeration will ,according to my experiments allow us two years between pond emptying and cleaning.

Hi Ozzy, I'm liking the idea of a pond, water is a concern to though. Is there any point in my continuing to research this if I don't have access to a river or klong for water?

Not really mate, you would probably be able to fill it during the wet season but with soakage and evaporation you would end up with a mud slurry in the bottom by xmas/new year.

Of course there are exceptions, a very high water table or an artesian gusher can also make it possible.

[RedBullHorn]

Hi Guys,

I haven't posted in a few years...gots to get the house payments down far enough before i can leave and try a life of farming like we once did before the war in cambodia. We have two plots of land, 65ha in kompong cham, 75ha near sisophon where 50ha gots 3plus years of eucalyptus, 25 has been cleared and plowed. I'm heading to down to visit and recon a 17ha plot northeast of siam reap closer to thai border.

I would really like to meet all of you one of these days, if anything bbq, charred meat, and beer session just to listen to you fish farm veterans.

love reading all your comments and wisdom of fish rearing... I would really like to try my hands on tilapia and catfish. There is a guy in florida who started tilapia in a big plastic pool, don't think i can do the same in Portland, Oregon...too dayum cold!

Thanks guys and keep on posting. Thanks TT, by the time I start. I'll be to you as you to RBH and Ozzy now.

Sok

Farming catfishes its alot easyer than tilapai.

The catfish its 1000 times stronger than the tilapai,grow faster,its indipent how you feeding!

And they are realy strong when they past the 100 gram each fish.

Fore me you can never loose your money,bt cats farming.

I start to doing now catfish breeding.

If you like ,i can try some nice film video to send.

On the african way.

Post your video here, we'd like to see it

[necronx99]

fair, after all our little farm is also not on a main road, but between paddy and sugarcane fields, out of he village, no driving by chances.

We were fortunate in that our land is in a group of villages and only 75 metres from a main road so some signage and directions that even Thais can follow sorted that possible problem.

We also have numerous small food sellers that we supply daily and for a small discount we were allowed to put up "Pla Nin supplied by ........."signs at these outlets.

We used to have a couple of months where we were sold out of fish, but a few ads on the local radio station when we resumed selling brought our customers back.

This year I have changed the system and installed a nursery pond which is kept stocked with fry so that as a pond is caught out we can restock with advanced fingerlings which I anticipate will cut the time period from pond stocking to ready for sale to about 5 months.

Having available water for regular water changes and top up plus aeration will ,according to my experiments allow us two years between pond emptying and cleaning.

Hi Ozzy, I'm liking the idea of a pond, water is a concern to though. Is there any point in my continuing to research this if I don't have access to a river or klong for water?

Not really mate, you would probably be able to fill it during the wet season but with soakage and evaporation you would end up with a mud slurry in the bottom by xmas/new year.

Of course there are exceptions, a very high water table or an artesian gusher can also make it possible.

Bugger. I was liking the thought of this. I'll see what happens when we drill a bore. Shallow bore just means economcal pumping right?

[RedBullHorn]

This is what i did...

Contract the backhoe to dig 1.5m x 400sqm, then i told the driver to creat multiple slope steps so the machine could dig down further. down to 4m we hit water...so i instructed him to creat another step slope and dig 5m more below the water table...Done ! Paid and bye bye...