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Poor Catfish Growth: What to do when your Fishes are not Growing Well

  

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It is not uncommon to hear catfish farmers complain of poor growth in their catfish stock. In fact, some farmers attribute poor growth in their stock to unresolved spiritual problems.

Up to 95 percent of cases of poor growth in catfishes are traceable to violations of fundamental principle upon which catfish farming is based. If you go against the rule and best management practices in catfish farming, you will surely pay for it in the area of growth of your stock.

At this point in time I will like to make a recommendation on how your catfishes should look like at specific month(s).  This will enable farmer to compare and make a logical conclusion based on reality. Farmers should note that the recommendations in the table below is purely based on average results achieved on my farm in the in the last 7 years.

Catfish Size Range per Month

   Age (days\month) Size (grams\kg)
Size stocked(10 grams juvenile)

Day1-day 30

100-150 grams    (0.1-0.15kg)
Day31-day 60 150-250 grams     (0.15-0.25kg)
Day 61-day 90 250-500grams       (0.25-0.5kg)
Day 91-day120  500-900 grams     (0.5-0.9kg)
Day 121-day150 900-1600 grams   (0.9-1.6kg)
Day 151-day180 1600-2400 grams (1.6-2.4kg)
Day 180+ 2400grams+            (2.4kg+)

The result in the table is achieved under an acceptable best practice in catfish farming. With good feeds that meet the nutritional requirement of your stock per time, good water environment and above all, good seeds — farmers should be able to get a result that falls with the range given in the table. You can be sure of poor growth in your stock if your catfishes perform below the range of sizes recommended (all things being equal).

From experience, there are many factors that can cause stunted growth in catfishes: king of which are poor seed, malnutrition and poor water environment. Apart from these major factors, other causes include;

  • Stocking your ponds beyond its carriage capacity.
  • Feeding your fishes grossly below daily requirement.
  • Infections and diseases that reduce growth.
  • Inconsistent and irregular feeding of your stock (skip feeding).
  • Poor start.
  • Feeding your fishes with the wrong feed size.
  • Too shallow pond.
  • Poor weather condition
  • Etc.

What should I do to prevent loss?

  1. Identify the cause of problem through the history of the stock. Every other problem can be corrected except bad breed issues. Feeds can be improved and served as at when due. Work on how to improve the water condition and reduce density if you overstocked.
  2. Find out the type of breed stock, some breed mature early while some mature late. Late maturing breeds are always slow at the beginning and catch up later around three months.
  3. Never take any decision to sell before three months except they are raised for such market.
  4. Feed them with the right feed and the right size. Ensure up to 99 percent of your stock can pick certain size of feed before you introduce such feed size. There is no crime in feeding your fishes that can pick 6mm with 4mm. In fact it allows them to achieve their growth potential better. Never rush to graduate your fish from lower feed sizes.
  5. When there is no significant improvement in your catfish growth after four month, please dispose them (sell them out). The more you keep such fishes, the more you lose. Don’t ever forget that bad stock will eat little and convert less.

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22 Comments

  1. ladele bolaji

    Sir,

    Thanks so much for your encouragement.
    I want to ask what is proportion of feeds ingredients to use to make pellet food for catfish over 3month?

  2. Folahanmi

    Thanks

  3. Odeinde Tunde

    U’re doing a fantastic job.Pls keep it up

  4. Gwen

    Um in what place is the 95%? From what country?

  5. In calculating my cp for fish that is three months and above, what percentage will you recommend.

  6. Thanks for your reply on my request for cp calculation on feed formulation .What are the vital Amino acid and how do we calculate it’s inclution in feed formulation?

  7. OYEMADE ABAYOMI

    SIR HOW MANY KILOGRAMS OF FISH FEED CAN 500 FINGERLINGS EAT BEFORE REACHING TABLE SIZE OF 1 KILO

  8. emmanuel

    please sir i have been feeding about 11 fingerlings in a plastic pond for about a month and some weeks now but i have not actually seen any impressive improvment on them. What do you advise i do sir

  9. ELIJAH SOLOMON

    Pls more light on hw to make feed more protienous

  10. ELIJAH SOLOMON

    Pls more light on hw to make feed more protienous

  11. I Still Do No What To Do

  12. Val Obi

    Good day, pls how do I treat ich

  13. Val Obi

    My fish has ich,what should be done to eliminate it I have never experienced it before

  14. samsonojae

    Infact ur analysis is correct, but is there no drug we can add to them to make their growth better

  15. Ekuma Godwin

    Why does some fishes grow faster than some

  16. Omodele olalekan

    Pls sir am a newcomer in the business but my first experience is bitter I lost all my investment pls how can I go about it next Time.

  17. Austin

    Thanks for the job well done, I noticed there’s no improvement on my fish farm after four months despite how I feed them. What should I do in that case?

  18. Clinton Durunna

    My fishes of 6 months plus are less than 500g in average weight. Who do I do to avoid future recurrence?

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