Growth Cycle Of Pla Nin

[ray23]

How long does it take to grow them from fry to market size?

[grimleybob]

That depends on the quality of the fry, the type of food and the environment in which they are grown. If you start with 4" fish, anything from 4 to 8 months depending on the above.

[RedBullHorn]

No offense grimleybob, i couldn't resist, please do not misdirect, catfish goes by inches, Pla Nin goes by coin size,

฿1/฿2 or ฿5.

Fries...Hybrid Class F1 Batch 28 !?!!

I know the type of feed...Do you ? ...Environment ??? Such as ?

...and never less than 6-7 months, market's target size 8-9 months...

ray23...Please PM Ozzydom for more detail...

[tingtong]

Nam Sai farm gives some guidelines on their website.

www.tilapiathai.com

A big advantege should be also having monosex tilapia (pla nin) in your lake, else you gotta end up with lot of small size fish...

I just emptied a lake of our, that was the recreational fishing lake, and it had plenty of mixed size fish. but in the last months i let there in a few 100s of catfish, around 5-7 inch long....they did quite well cleaning up the small pla nin fryes, so, was a win-win. still lot of variation in size, and the smaller ones, like 50-150g, are not really marketable, even for cheaper price. however, wife can make pla ra? (this Isan fermented fish thingy for somtam) from it, and as long she keeps it far out of my way, it is fine with me. but FAR out, that is key!

but if for market, then monosex should be the way to go. from reliable source, else it is waste of time and feed.

[Gary A]

I'm not sure about anyone else's pla nin but mine grow slow, slower and much slower. After two years, they are still not large enough to eat, meaning less than a kilo. We fed them at first then I wanted some catfish. We raised the catfish in a net enclosure and released them when they were still smaller than the pla nin.

The catfish are aggressive feeders and eat all the pellets and the pla nin get hardly any. The catfish are now huge and the pla nin are still small.

[tingtong]

if the catfish partly huge due eating the excessive amount of tilapia fryes, ( tilapia tend to overbreed, and somewhere i read that a 100g fish is ready for it; far bellow usual marketable size) than i think that is OK.

the very reason why we let free some catfish, to weed out some of the fryes.

i am not sure what you mean on feeding the catfish, as you mentioned once that your lake was bit away from your house. hope you not meant the thai style feeding like our almost neighbor, who buys about 1 kg of pellet for his fish....per week

no wonder, they grow slow.

[Gary A]

if the catfish partly huge due eating the excessive amount of tilapia fryes, ( tilapia tend to overbreed, and somewhere i read that a 100g fish is ready for it; far bellow usual marketable size) than i think that is OK.

the very reason why we let free some catfish, to weed out some of the fryes.

i am not sure what you mean on feeding the catfish, as you mentioned once that your lake was bit away from your house. hope you not meant the thai style feeding like our almost neighbor, who buys about 1 kg of pellet for his fish....per week

no wonder, they grow slow.

We have two different farms. The first farm cannot be stocked because of the theives. The second is near a fairly busy road and much closer to home. In addition to that, there is our elevated lane going back to the pond and that is the only way in or out. I think a bag of pellets cost about 380 baht. I buy the pla nin type but the catfish are not fussy eaters.

Actually I like eating the catfish better than pla nin anyways. The last catfish I cleaned had what looked like about a five inch fish inside him. Upon further poking around, it was a banana.

[ray23]

Ok nine months thanks guys

[grimleybob]

No offense grimleybob, i couldn't resist, please do not misdirect, catfish goes by inches, Pla Nin goes by coin size,

฿1/฿2 or ฿5.

Fries...Hybrid Class F1 Batch 28 !?!!

I know the type of feed...Do you ? ...Environment ??? Such as ?

...and never less than 6-7 months, market's target size 8-9 months...

ray23...Please PM Ozzydom for more detail...

No offence taken. I could answer all of the questions you have raised but I won't waste my time. Having read most of your posts, many of which I have enjoyed and gained knowledge from, the underlying feeling that I get is that it is "your way or no way". The world is no longer flat, it's round. It's called progress. Open your eyes to innovation. Always look to the future. History has proved there's always a better way. Try new methods of production for yourself, as an experiment, in a small way, then you can justifiably dismiss or accept your findings.

GB

PS I would start my 2" fingerlings off on frog food

[ozzydom]

How long is a piece of string?

As previous posters have stated, growth of Pla Nin is dependant on many factors,including.........

pond water quality

environment ( pond ,cage in river etc)

type of husbandry (green water in pond (cannot practice this method in river of course)

feeding practice (protein content)

Pla Nin species ( some hybrids do better than others.

monoculture or mixed sex

and the list goes on...............

We practice green water methods with a small amount of supplementory feeding using fairly low protein pellets and 5 kg of ram per pond every second day.

From fry to 600-800gram is approx 8 months although this has shortened a bit by changing our system to buying fry once a cycle and growing them on in a nursery pond, they are then caught and transferred to each pond as it is emptied and prepared.

CP gets their cage fish up to 1kg in 6 months and less ,reason being water quality in flowing river has better oxygen levels and little chance of nitrate blooms.But they feed very heavily on high protein pellets (they can afford to as they manufacture the pellets).

There cost of production is much higher than ours but so to is their turnover.

Another grower not far from us grows in cages in a small river and feeds 15.5-20 % protein pellets for 4 months then 35 % catfish pellets to finish off and he gets his fish to 800 gram av in 6 months.

We use Nam Sai Farms as supplier of monoculture fry and are usually pretty good but the fry purchased turned out to contain a higher percentage of breeders and hence we have higher than normal incidence of baby fish (GRRRR)which means we have to poison each pond as we finish catching sales fish ,which is a pain in the butt.

You will always have a small quantity of fish where the testosterone treatment has been unsuccessful and one way to offset this is to introduce Barramundi fry at the rate of 1-20 ,these will keep baby Pla Nin in check . The last time we used them I kept transferring them from pond to pond and had 5kg Barra,s in 3 years.(great sport ,great eating).

I am reliably informed that Barra in a lake/pond with mixed sex Pla Nin can attain 15Kg in 5 years.

[ray23]

How long is a piece of string?

As previous posters have stated, growth of Pla Nin is dependant on many factors,including.........

pond water quality

environment ( pond ,cage in river etc)

type of husbandry (green water in pond (cannot practice this method in river of course)

feeding practice (protein content)

Pla Nin species ( some hybrids do better than others.

monoculture or mixed sex

and the list goes on...............

We practice green water methods with a small amount of supplementory feeding using fairly low protein pellets and 5 kg of ram per pond every second day.

From fry to 600-800gram is approx 8 months although this has shortened a bit by changing our system to buying fry once a cycle and growing them on in a nursery pond, they are then caught and transferred to each pond as it is emptied and prepared.

CP gets their cage fish up to 1kg in 6 months and less ,reason being water quality in flowing river has better oxygen levels and little chance of nitrate blooms.But they feed very heavily on high protein pellets (they can afford to as they manufacture the pellets).

There cost of production is much higher than ours but so to is their turnover.

Another grower not far from us grows in cages in a small river and feeds 15.5-20 % protein pellets for 4 months then 35 % catfish pellets to finish off and he gets his fish to 800 gram av in 6 months.

We use Nam Sai Farms as supplier of monoculture fry and are usually pretty good but the fry purchased turned out to contain a higher percentage of breeders and hence we have higher than normal incidence of baby fish (GRRRR)which means we have to poison each pond as we finish catching sales fish ,which is a pain in the butt.

You will always have a small quantity of fish where the testosterone treatment has been unsuccessful and one way to offset this is to introduce Barramundi fry at the rate of 1-20 ,these will keep baby Pla Nin in check . The last time we used them I kept transferring them from pond to pond and had 5kg Barra,s in 3 years.(great sport ,great eating).

I am reliably informed that Barra in a lake/pond with mixed sex Pla Nin can attain 15Kg in 5 years.

I would say as long as you estimate to be. We have a small pond pump oxygen 7/24. We sit up as you said for algae growth we feed 2 KG a day. The pond has a spring that is feeding it all the time

Based on every thing I'm seeing I'm estimating nine months. Since Thais have no desire for 5 KG fish.

How close is my estimate?

[ozzydom]

How long is a piece of string?

As previous posters have stated, growth of Pla Nin is dependant on many factors,including.........

pond water quality

environment ( pond ,cage in river etc)

type of husbandry (green water in pond (cannot practice this method in river of course)

feeding practice (protein content)

Pla Nin species ( some hybrids do better than others.

monoculture or mixed sex

and the list goes on...............

We practice green water methods with a small amount of supplementory feeding using fairly low protein pellets and 5 kg of ram per pond every second day.

From fry to 600-800gram is approx 8 months although this has shortened a bit by changing our system to buying fry once a cycle and growing them on in a nursery pond, they are then caught and transferred to each pond as it is emptied and prepared.

CP gets their cage fish up to 1kg in 6 months and less ,reason being water quality in flowing river has better oxygen levels and little chance of nitrate blooms.But they feed very heavily on high protein pellets (they can afford to as they manufacture the pellets).

There cost of production is much higher than ours but so to is their turnover.

Another grower not far from us grows in cages in a small river and feeds 15.5-20 % protein pellets for 4 months then 35 % catfish pellets to finish off and he gets his fish to 800 gram av in 6 months.

We use Nam Sai Farms as supplier of monoculture fry and are usually pretty good but the fry purchased turned out to contain a higher percentage of breeders and hence we have higher than normal incidence of baby fish (GRRRR)which means we have to poison each pond as we finish catching sales fish ,which is a pain in the butt.

You will always have a small quantity of fish where the testosterone treatment has been unsuccessful and one way to offset this is to introduce Barramundi fry at the rate of 1-20 ,these will keep baby Pla Nin in check . The last time we used them I kept transferring them from pond to pond and had 5kg Barra,s in 3 years.(great sport ,great eating).

I am reliably informed that Barra in a lake/pond with mixed sex Pla Nin can attain 15Kg in 5 years.

I would say as long as you estimate to be. We have a small pond pump oxygen 7/24. We sit up as you said for algae growth we feed 2 KG a day. The pond has a spring that is feeding it all the time

Based on every thing I'm seeing I'm estimating nine months. Since Thais have no desire for 5 KG fish.

How close is my estimate?

If all goes to plan you should be looking at Pla Nin of 600-800 gram in that time span Ray, what % protein pellets are you feeding ?

[grimleybob]

If all goes to plan you should be looking at Pla Nin of 600-800 gram in that time span Ray, what % protein pellets are you feeding ?

Ozzy

You mentioned Barramundi in your last post. It's a fish I've never eaten but I've been told they are a bit like sea-bass. Are they OK to eat at 6-800 grams or do they need to grow bigger?

Bob

[ozzydom]

If all goes to plan you should be looking at Pla Nin of 600-800 gram in that time span Ray, what % protein pellets are you feeding ?

Ozzy

You mentioned Barramundi in your last post. It's a fish I've never eaten but I've been told they are a bit like sea-bass. Are they OK to eat at 6-800 grams or do they need to grow bigger?

Bob

Bob , Plate size they are sold as Sea Perch and are no great treat, but 5kg and up to 50kg they flesh develops into firm white flakey texture and ls one of the top eating fish to be had anywhere.

The smaller ones are usually steamed and seasoned whole and are favoured because of the lack of small bones.

Larger ones are filleted,skinned then sliced into about 1 inch chunks and pan fried,grilled or as in Oz slapped on the BBQ.

[ray23]

Protien, not sure I will check on that today.

Our recent experience with Cat Fish when they got big Thai's didn't really want ro buy them. those that did loved them.

I had to empty that pond our larger pond is over stocked 2,000. So I will be moving four hundred, since Cat Fish don't eat algae it's algae rich.

Any way we will have to then them out one way or another, two many of them.

Before we emptied that Cat fish pond we used a throw net to catch them, Some Thais know how to use them some don't. I tried but it's not as easy as it looks. But the other pond with the fresh water spring males next to impossible to pump it out.

The mushrooms are the money maker right now can't keep up with the demand

It's been an interesting experince I have learned a lot from you guys I'm grateful

[ray23]

Dom it's 15.5% protien I assume that is low protien. Runs about 300 baht for a big bag. I estimate we will use three bags a month at current feeding levels overall cost about 27K if we hit the nine month level.

We are using low voltage air pumps we have domestic water site a well. With all the pumps running cost run roughly 300 baht a month.

We had great luck with the throw nets. For the bigger pond I need to make some sort of raft, so yuo can use the net from there.

I hope to find out where we can buy the shrimp traps that seems like a very good idea. A little night fishing

We simply have to mnay fish for the ponds we have so I will have to thin them out, even if I have to sale them as dried fish. We used the supplier you normally use in Nong Khai, but I think the fry actually came from Bangkok, so no idea if the were sexed or not.

Oh well someday hope to have a house out there and have a hobby that actually brings in a few baht

[finnomick1]

Dom it's 15.5% protien I assume that is low protien. Runs about 300 baht for a big bag. I estimate we will use three bags a month at current feeding levels overall cost about 27K if we hit the nine month level.

We are using low voltage air pumps we have domestic water site a well. With all the pumps running cost run roughly 300 baht a month.

We had great luck with the throw nets. For the bigger pond I need to make some sort of raft, so yuo can use the net from there.

I hope to find out where we can buy the shrimp traps that seems like a very good idea. A little night fishing

We simply have to mnay fish for the ponds we have so I will have to thin them out, even if I have to sale them as dried fish. We used the supplier you normally use in Nong Khai, but I think the fry actually came from Bangkok, so no idea if the were sexed or not.

Oh well someday hope to have a house out there and have a hobby that actually brings in a few baht

Why not make your own shrimp traps, it's dead easy. Get some 1.25 litre coke or fanta bottles. Cut the bottle at the top so it looks like a funnel. Reverse the top piece and tie it so it is inside the body of the bottle. drop in some fish food pellets and throw it into the pond over night -- not forgetting to tie a length of string to it first. Next morning, you'll have shrimps. My wife does this all the time so I know it works.

[ray23]

Darn that is worth a try for sure.

actually sounds like a bit of fun.

Does she put lights where the traps are?

Don't happen to have photo do you I will never be able to explain that to the wife.

[finnomick1]

Protien, not sure I will check on that today.

Our recent experience with Cat Fish when they got big Thai's didn't really want ro buy them. those that did loved them.

I had to empty that pond our larger pond is over stocked 2,000. So I will be moving four hundred, since Cat Fish don't eat algae it's algae rich.

Any way we will have to then them out one way or another, two many of them.

Before we emptied that Cat fish pond we used a throw net to catch them, Some Thais know how to use them some don't. I tried but it's not as easy as it looks. But the other pond with the fresh water spring males next to impossible to pump it out.

The mushrooms are the money maker right now can't keep up with the demand

It's been an interesting experince I have learned a lot from you guys I'm grateful

Hello Ray,

we do the fish thing along with frogs and mushrooms. Which sort of mushrooms do you grow ? We grow straw mushrooms for which we get a reasonable price but it's hard and hot work. Discussing which type of item to grow, per square metre mushrooms and frogs give the best return and the fish the worst return. We tried to get higher than 15.5% protein fish food but were told we would have to be in the ' cooperative ' to get it -- it was also a lot more expensive, about 500 baht for a 20kg sack. I think we are going to give the frogs a big go this year and already have a stock of biguns but will also probably buy in some littleuns to grow them on.

[ray23]

Not sure what kind they are, the come on a bottle looking type of thing and aere grown in Thatch houses we had built. Not much to it, sprinkle water twice day adn pick them. The containers are 8 baht each. So front end cost is high. Someone suggested I grow my own spores. Not sure I want to get that involved. But, who knows what the future may bring. So far at 45 baht a kilo we can not meet the demand. We are now having a second house built.

I'm in the UDON area the feed is everywhere within 5 or 10 baht, of 300 hundred for 20 Kilo bag. No cooperative here that I know of.

I had thought that would be a good idea, now I may rethink that.

[finnomick1]

We know the type of mushrooms you grow but unfortunately there is no market for them here or we'd be growing these instead of straw mushrooms. For straw mushrooms, the spore bag is about 12 baht and only lasts about 15 to 18 days. On top of this, we have to steam the mushroom houses every time. We have 3 mushroom houses measuring 8 metres long by 4 metres wide. We use 40 bags of spores in each room. Every ' batch ' of mushrooms costs us about 8000 baht to start and we reckon to earn between 25000 and 30000 baht per batch. All our mushrooms are collected by an agent who then delivers them to Bangkok. The price of our mushrooms varies between 45 and 70 baht per kilo but if you check the price on the supermarket shelves, it's nearer 200 baht per kilo.

[ray23]

Looks like we are really new subject I will start a new thread, with last e-mail

[finnomick1]

Darn that is worth a try for sure.

actually sounds like a bit of fun.

Does she put lights where the traps are?

Don't happen to have photo do you I will never be able to explain that to the wife.

No lights used Ray, she justs drops them at the side into the pond on a bit of string then pulls them out in the morning. We've also used these ' traps ' to catch small fish for bait. I'll have to go down to one of the ponds tomorrow and see if I can get a photo.

[finnomick1]

Looks like we are really new subject I will start a new thread, with last e-mail

What's the heading of the new thread Ray ?

[ray23]

Mushroom farming if it's still there.

I will post photos of our house there.

I'm really imtersted in learning how to grow spores whether I do it or not.

[motorcrazy]

I am not a moraal rider.but guys forget all the ideaas i try really everythink ,like mushroom faroming ,planin,pladuck big ui,chikkens.

And all for a nothing profit for living, the profit of the pladuk it was 10 bhat each kg ,profit of the planin its was 13 baht ech kg.

Mushroom forget it its nobody around you and they have no experinense you wil loose alot.

Keep your monney in your phoket,and enjoy your live.

[David48]

I was bemused when I read motorcrazy's post above ... it's true to his style of writing.

[necronx99]

I am not a moraal rider.but guys forget all the ideaas i try really everythink ,like mushroom faroming ,planin,pladuck big ui,chikkens.

And all for a nothing profit for living, the profit of the pladuk it was 10 bhat each kg ,profit of the planin its was 13 baht ech kg.

Mushroom forget it its nobody around you and they have no experinense you wil loose alot.

Keep your monney in your phoket,and enjoy your live.

I think the idea is for you to develop your own experience before commiting any large sums.

[ray23]

I am not a moraal rider.but guys forget all the ideaas i try really everythink ,like mushroom faroming ,planin,pladuck big ui,chikkens.

And all for a nothing profit for living, the profit of the pladuk it was 10 bhat each kg ,profit of the planin its was 13 baht ech kg.

Mushroom forget it its nobody around you and they have no experinense you wil loose alot.

Keep your monney in your phoket,and enjoy your live.

I think the idea is for you to develop your own experience before commiting any large sums.

I would agree with thaqt, and motocrazy, it's not for me it's for my wife when I kick the bucket. What I get out of it's a chance to keep busy when I'm not riding. So it has an immeasurable value to me. Thai's can live on a heck of a lot less then we do. I have done ,my best to make sure she will have enough money, when I check out. I have al;rready said if makes a profit on average of 500 baht a week. I'm a happy camper.

[finnomick1]

I am not a moraal rider.but guys forget all the ideaas i try really everythink ,like mushroom faroming ,planin,pladuck big ui,chikkens.

And all for a nothing profit for living, the profit of the pladuk it was 10 bhat each kg ,profit of the planin its was 13 baht ech kg.

Mushroom forget it its nobody around you and they have no experinense you wil loose alot.

Keep your monney in your phoket,and enjoy your live.

I think the idea is for you to develop your own experience before commiting any large sums.

I would agree with thaqt, and motocrazy, it's not for me it's for my wife when I kick the bucket. What I get out of it's a chance to keep busy when I'm not riding. So it has an immeasurable value to me. Thai's can live on a heck of a lot less then we do. I have done ,my best to make sure she will have enough money, when I check out. I have al;rready said if makes a profit on average of 500 baht a week. I'm a happy camper.

I read your comments motocrazy, and agree with some of what you write. We grow plan nin and make little profit. However the mushrooms have already paid for a new Nissan Navara -- we make good money from them considering the area of land we use to grow them. We also have fields full of sugarcane, mansampalang and rice -- all a waste of time in my opinion, so we are starting to plant rubber trees which our family already have and make good money from. As Ray23 says, it's more for the wife and her family but I'm happy to tinker around doing odd jobs and the free pick-up is nice. We are now looking for a nice motorbike to be paid for out of the mushroom money, not my pocket.