Digging for Info

[tmaker]

Hi.

tis just my suggestion ( or maybe there is one already and i am 'blind' ..lol )

is the a thread ( sticky ) on : - for Thailand

1. where to buy what - material,supplies,chemical all the sorts

2. where to buy - stock , fish fry and others

3. what to watch out for - disease,pest

4. what to do - water pH etc

5. how to prevent invasive species

and so on.

maybe there is already and i forgotten where it was ? lol

just a suggestion. some info are already 'stickied' ..lol...

as i need to start 'cranking' up my system by month's end.

thks !!

[teletiger]

Yes, there is a fishery 101. Red Bull Horn is the man to ask.....though he doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Here's the latest reincarnation....
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/623095-fish-farms-201/

[teletiger]

Just a quick look....

RBH in a kindly mood.

"Food for thought...

1. How long have you been here? If less than a year, you should consider staying for up to 2 years full time to see if you could fully adapt and to observe the way of life, charaters and personalities of the people you're going to live with.

2. If you're investing, you'll need to be here hands-on full time with or without hired farmhands, it is not a considerably wise move to leave it with the wife, in-laws, etc... Because work need to be done right and done diligently and according to many feedback by PM from members here, things always turn out wrong or went south when they're not around most of the time or the in-law are not serious about the whole investment (not their money) and can't be bother with schedules. How about yourself, are you ready to do the learning curve? It take about 2 years to learn the skill of this trade and you may not get paid during the trial and error stage.

3. Lets talk about fish farming, do you have a pond yet? if no, can the intended pond site for excavation holds water (soil type) or have sufficient water year round... or do you have to fight for your share of water when the villagers of neighbouring fields full of paddy are tightening their grip by blocking the stream and diverting the flow of water into their cash crops?

4. You need to find out which supplier is reliable for fingerling stock, about feed grade, about rearing seasons, about market volatility, about supply and demand, about farmgate prices, about harvesting, about pond clearing. And before all this, there's also knowledge about soil conditions, water conditions, PH level, remedies, effective water depth, effective pond designs and construction, weather/climate, pathogens, diseases and controls, temperatures and anaerobic cycle, pond maintenance...

5. Manpower...who will be working, who will be guarding ? In my case, daytime i work my farm, at night i live in the farmhouse by the ponds, literally beside the ponds, my dogs guard them at night while i sleep inside my quarter, they barks and I'll need to wake up to check, no point to hire a guard who sleep through the night and not caring even if something bad is going on like fish theft. (get paid to sleep? at ฿2'000 he think so absolutely !)

6. Volume counts ! You will not be able to survive doing 10'000 or 20'000 or even 50'000 fishes per cycle let alone year round. I can't even survive farming 100'000 fishes/cycle. Currently I'm doing 535'000 fishes/cycle, ROI is roughly ฿1.6 mil/year (3 cycles). Initial capital is ฿3.8mil... or about ฿70'000 investment [2013] for fingerlings and grade 'A' feed for per 10'000 fishes and the return profit is between ฿0.70-฿1 for newly start out/amateur fish farmers. So truthfully you will not be able to survive if investing with small capital, investing BIG is a risk for newbies. To solve this problem/problems, you will need to have a backup monetary saving or supplementary income that will help to keep you survive for 2 years. A pro/skill farmer makes between ฿1.3-฿2 per fish.

7. Lastly... be firm, be humble, be nice, be polite and be kind to villagers. Keep you nose clean and stay under the radar (low profile). There will be people who like you and people who hate you (out of envy or jealousy). You do not want the worse thing that could happen to your live stock - Sabotage.

Happy farming and cheers"

[tmaker]

thks for the input guys.

1. i am already here for more than 2 years. - started this in a way by accident ( info in the link below ). but then if this works and can support me,it can be used as a plan for my retirement.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/803739-newbie-to-aquponics-2/

2.not investing now - trial and more into Aquaponics as i do not have the space you mentioned !!

so i have 2 years to learn the trade and then hopefully , i can have a back up plan ...

[tmaker]

another question

if i use the SLO system, must the pump in the Sump tank be below the lowest water point ? ( means lower than the deepest part of the main tank )