Sea food(Cat fish) or fish farming in Nigeria is currently a very lucrative business which is mainly boosted by the continue-us rise within the demand for catfish.
Catfish farming the most popular form of fish farming in Nigeria which is therefore where the discourse of this article will likely be centered.
Whether you are just starting aquaculture with the expectation of making just an additional income or going directly into full scale commercial production, Here you will discover the prospects and the challenges facing the catfish farmers in Nigeria.
The most common species present in Nigeria are; Clarias gariepinus, Heterobranchus bidorsalis,
Clarias Back button Heterobranchus hybrid (Heteroclarias) in addition to Clarias nigro-digitatus.
Heterobranchus sp are incredibly common in the south eastern side of Nigeria with clarias spp now dominating the west.
Despite the popularity of catfish farming throughout Nigeria, the fish farming market can best be described as being at the infant stage in comparison with the large market potential of its production and marketing.
This is mainly as a result of unavailability of fingerlings as a result of lack of adequate facilities for hatcheries and fingerling production.
Breeding
If you intend to go into catfish harvesting in Nigeria, the first thing you will need to get hold of could be the fingerlings.
The fingerling can be had mainly through artificial propagation within the hatcheries through hormonal induction.
Inside Nigeria, it is usually inexpensive than the imported hormonal analogues. Fish Farmers also say that they are more reliable. And When i seriously don’t doubt these.
But despite the attractiveness of induced spawning, you'll find challenges which you need to face.
These problems all have their root within the extra care would have to be given to the fry during the first week of lifetime. In this regard, you will need to battle with provision of the zooplankton which serves as feeds for the larvae, fry and fingerlings thus playing an essential role on their growth and survival.
There is usually the problem of cannibalism, heavy predation by frogs/aquatic insects plus the abiotic challenges such because water temperature, dissolved breathable oxygen (>4. 5mg/L-1), levels connected with ammonia. The brood stock to use when it comes to breeding should be among 0. 3kg and 2kg.
Farming System
Next thing on the line is the culture system you'll use.
First, you have to bear in mind that these African catfishes (especially Clarias gariepinus) are cannibals. So you should consider great care in sorting them as outlined by size.
If you intend to culture the fingerling outdoor, you should take directly into consi-deration the prevalence connected with predatory insects in Nigeria. For that reason, ensure you cover this tanks with mosquito nets in an attempt to keep the predatory insects away.
For the person, poly culture of clarias gariepinus with tilapia spp is incredibly common in Nigeria possesses been known in recent times to be productive. This is carried out, using mainly concrete tanks which make it possible for supple-mentary feeding, thus being sure higher fish yield.
A number of few farmers also utilize indoor water re-circulatory system (WRS). But it can be costlier, so most simply make use of the concrete tanks.
Feeding methods
To accomplish maximal yield and growth of catfish in Nigeria, you will need to ensure that the feed you might be offering contains the essential amino acids such as arginine, methionine and lysine present in crude protein sources.
The richest source of crude protein for this specific purpose is fishmeal. But the high cost makes us to seek for a substitute, you can use different conventional and sometimes unconventional animal by-products as well as plant residue (such because groundnut cake, soyabean meal etc. ) that match the nutrient requirements of catfish.
This is in order to reduce cost of production whenever possible.
Through development of fish farming in recent times in Nigeria, feeding connected with catfish is predominantly carried out using pelleted floating feeds. This ensures adequate feeding in the fish thus increased growth rate.
It is advisable to accomplish it on a particular section of the pond instead of only scattering the feed across the water surface. This helps you to minimize wastage of the feed and saves money too.
Conclusion
Finally, fish farming in Nigeria is definitely an untapped goldmine while using fact that there is definitely an ever increasing need for catfish as the best substitute for meet the protein need in the people.
However, development of aquacul-ture is very hindered by inherent problems of developing nations for instance lack of adequate infrastructural facilities for the production of commercial sum fingerlings and fry. This major problem not withstanding, there continues to be a big market just for fish farming and investment in aquaculture in Nigeria.
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good article
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