NATURAL FOOD TO FEED CATFISH FRIES FOR FASTER GROWTH AND MINIMAL MORTALITY(VIDEO)

Infusoria can make quick and nutritious fry food!Infusoria can be used to feed egg laying fish fry.

This tiny freshwater equivalent of plankton can be used for all sorts of fish fry. The good thing is you can time it so that by the time they’ve used their egg sac up they can be eating the flourishing tiny little infusoria.


Even an impromptu batch of eggs can be fed with these tiny little organisms. Fish eggs will most likely get eaten quickly. It’s best to remove them and put them in a tank of their own. If they’ve already hatched you’re still in luck.


Move them into a tank of their own as soon as you can to avoid them from being eaten by the parents or tankmates. Newly Hatched Fry Live Off of Their Egg Sac Briefly Generally, it takes a couple of days for the fry to consume and exhaust their yolk sac.


If they still have a yolk by the time you discovered them there is a good chance that infusoria can help grow these tiny fry. If there is no yolk, you may not have time to start a culture before they need food. Many commercial foods are too large for small egg layer fry.


There are some commercially available fry foods, and boiled egg yolk can work also, but often they are too big. Your best bet is with infusoria. Old school books talked about infusoria quite a bit when discussing rearing fry. Somewhere along the way, it got pushed back into the far reaches of the hobby.


Infusoria Are in Streams and Ponds Naturally Infusoria are small little organisms that live in freshwaters like ponds, rivers, and streams.


They are also found in aquariums but it’s likely you won’t be able to see them. There’s also probably not a lot of them in there. Infusoria is a catch-all term for algae, euglena, paramecia, and other protozoans.


Rotifers and non-photosynthetic paramecia are the most nutritious for your new fry. Luckily they’re all easy to grow. Algae and rotifer alike.


Feeding Infusoria to Your Egglayer Fish FryInfusoria may grow in rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds but you don’t want to get yours from there.


All sorts of nasty little critters live in that water as well and you don’t want to introduce parasites and predators into your fry tank. You can use tap water if you let it sit and age or you can use water from your aquarium when you do a water change.


If you have a planted tank it is more likely to have more microorganisms in it which is beneficial. Some like to squeeze out a sponge filter into the water when starting a new infusoria culture. Other like to vacuum snail feces up as they are high in plant matter.


 In addition to aged water or aquarium water, you are going to need some organic matter to feed the culture of infusoria.


SEE VIDEO ON HOW TO CULTURE INFUSORIA BELOW

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Tips for Culturing at Home

Especially if you plan to breed your fish regularly, it is a good idea to learn how to culture infusoria at home. 

By learning how to culture your own infusoria, you can ensure that you will always have a supply of fry food on hand and you will save a great deal of money not having to purchase it multiple times. 

The easiest way to culture infusoria is by collecting water and/or filter debris from an established tank. Start by cleaning out a glass or plastic jar to culture your infusoria in. Next, fill the jar with water from an established aquarium – water from planted tanks is best.

After you’ve filled the jar, add some type of vegetable matter such as a few leaves of lettuce, potatoes, rice or debris from an active filter. 

After you’ve prepared the culture all you have to do is wait – some hobbyists recommend leaving the jar out in the sunlight to increase infusoria production but you can decide for yourself. 

After a few days you should see the water begin to turn cloudy or green. When this happens, it is a sign that the infusoria have reproduced sufficiently to be harvested.

Using Infusoria as Food for Fish

When using infusoria as food for fry you need to keep in mind that infusoria are microscopic so even a small amount of water from the culture jar will contain many infusoria. 

For this reason, it is important that you do not add too much water from the jar to your fry tank at one time because the uneaten infusoria will die and could pollute your tank. 

The easiest way to harvest infusoria is to use an eye dropper or turkey baster to collect a small amount of water from the top of the culture jar and to squirt it directly into the fry tank. You should plan to feed your fry small amounts of water from the infusoria culture at least twice a day so they will grow quickly.

After a few days, you may notice that your infusoria culture jar begins to develop an unpleasant odor – this is likely due to the decomposition of whatever vegetable matter you used to start the culture. 

When collecting infusoria to feed your fish it is important that you do not collect any of the vegetable matter. As the vegetable matter decomposes, this will be more difficult to accomplish so it is a good idea to start a new culture every 3 to 4 days so you always have a fresh one to work with. 

Depending on the species of fish you are breeding, most fry are ready to accept slightly larger foods like brine shrimp nauplii(artemia) after a week or so of feeding on infusoria. 

Start by offering a mixture of the two – when you see that the bellies of your fry are pink or yellow (the result of feeding on brine shrimp) it is safe to discontinue the use of infusoria.

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How to reduce pH of your water that is too Alkaline

Terminalia catappa leaves

Although in chemistry, most of us knows that to neutralize a substance or water that is alkaline, you need an acid to do, but we all know that most acid are toxic eg Sulfuric acid, Hcl, hydrochloric acid. If you are reading this article congratulations.

We want to introduce you to a natural way reduce your water alkalinity to neutral (ph 7.0) or highest ( 7.5 ph). You can do this by using Dry catappa leaves, porpularly known as fruit tree leaves in Nigeria and Indian Almond tree leaves.

Here is a video below after major studies of the leave in balancing ph of several water sources:

Watch Video: 

LEARN MORE ABOUT CATAPPA LEAVES BELOW

Terminalia catappa tree – a tree that is native to Southeast Asia and has been used in traditional medicine there for centuries.[1]

If you are wondering what a Terminalia catappa tree looks like, here it is…

Terminalia catappa tree

Once dried, they are ready to be used in ponds.  

Let’s take a look at the most common uses for Indian almond leaves.

1. Improve the quality of your aquarium water

When added to your aquarium, an Indian almond leaf will gradually break down. And as it does, it releases tannic acid, tannins and other substances into your aquarium.

As the tannic acid is released, it lowers the pH of your water. If you want a natural solution to reduce the pH levels in your aquarium, Indian almond leaf helps to achieve just that.

A study has also found that Indian almond leaves can significantly decrease water hardness (GH), which can benefit those who use hard water in their aquariums.

Okay, but what good is that for your aquarium?

Well, the water out of your tap probably doesn’t match the ideal conditions of the fish you keep.

Indian almond leaves change the water so that it more closely resembles the habitat of your fish

2. Natural medication for skin problems

Many fish farmers swear by Indian almond leaf as a natural remedy for diseases or injury involving their fish’s skin or rather their scales.

It is believed the tannins released by Indian almond leaves kill bacteria, fungus and viruses, allowing an injured fish to heal much quicker.

It is even suggested that Indian almond leaf might be a better solution than antibiotics and other medications when fighting bacteria and fungus in commercial fish farms.

3. Food and protection for fry (baby fish)

Indian almond leaves are the gift that keeps giving, even once your fish have hatched.

Many fish keepers add Indian almond leaves to fry tanks – an aquarium that is set aside just for baby fish.

First, the leaves give fry a place to hide, allowing them to feel safe. Sure, there are no predators in your fry tank, but your tiny fish don’t know that.

As the Indian almond leaves begin to break down, microorganisms called infusoria appear and feed on the leaf.

Infusoria are so small that humans can barely see them with our naked eye. However, to your fry that are barely bigger than an eyelash, infusoria might as well be a steak dinner.

Newly hatched fry happily chow down on infusoria until they grow large enough that they need to switch to an alternate food source.

As Indian almond or catappa leaves break down, they release tannins. These tannins can stain your water, turning it a yellow or brown tinge.

It’s similar to dipping a tea bag into a hot cup of water. The tannins are released into the water, giving the tea its color.

To a beginner, this yellow water can be quite a surprise.

I mean, whenever you go to a fish store or aquarium, the water is crystal clear, right?

Well, it might surprise you to learn that this yellow water is actually a good thing for many types of fish.

You see, lots of fish come from waters that are a murky brown color.

Most rivers and streams are a dark color because thousands or even millions of leaves have washed into the water and broken down.

While you might not be crazy about the color, this darker water may reduce stress in shy fish like discus.

And since stress is the number one cause of death in fish, a little bit of yellow water is a small price to pay for the happiness of your fish.

In fact, many fish owners prefer darker water – it allows them to create unusual and stunning aquariums like this one…

Well, Indian almond leaves are unique in that they break down slower than other leaves. The leaves have big, tough veins that take a long time to deteriorate, long after the rest of the leaf has broken down.

The advantage to this is that you can pull the leaf out of your aquarium without it disintegrating into small pieces.

Also, while other leaves might give off tannins, Indian almond leaves also have medicinal properties – something that other leaves don’t offer.

How do you use Indian almond/ Catappa leaves?

So, you want to add Indian almond leaves to your pond?

Now that you have your Indian almond leaves on hand, it’s time to add them to your pond. 

Dunking an Indian almond leaf in your tank

The most common way of using Indian almond leaves is to drop them directly into your tank. It’s generally recommended that you start with one medium-sized leaf for every 10 gallons of water inside your aquarium.

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practical catfish hatching process (video)

Nowadays, a lot of people are interested in learning how to hatch catfish at home. Just for them we have prepared a guide that could be of great help for those who are just starting with catfish farming in Nigeria. We will take you through the whole process, and you will be able to do it yourself in no time!

Step-by-step guide to operating a catfish hatchery

Despite what you might be thinking, catfish farming is not that complicated, as long as you have at least a basic idea of what you are doing. While you do have to do some research before you seriously decide to hatch catfish, we can provide you with a general guide, just so you know what you are signing up for.

Here is the full process of how catfish hatching works:

• Selecting the brood. You can do so by getting your fish in the wild or buying it from a fish trader, farmer or a fish research institute. The latter is recommended, because the fishes there has been brought up in strict controlled conditions that minimise the chances of it having defects or being prone to diseases. You can buy mature fishes or start with juveniles and raise them to maturity yourself.

• Telling apart the males from females. If you are working with adult fish, this should not be that hard. Mature female catfish that is ready to produce eggs has a reddish opening in the bottom where the eggs come out. It should have a protruding swollen stomach filled with eggs. The mature male catfish has an elongated reddish papilla on the bottom.

• Selecting the specimen. For the best results, it is recommended to choose two female catfish and three male. The females should be large and ready to produce eggs. The males should be approximately of the same size.

• Weighing the female fish. In order to determine how much hormones you need to inject your female catfish (and you need to do that, trust us), you should weigh it first. Based on its weight, you need to prepare the hormone solution.

• Choosing the hormones. You can go natural (by harvesting pituitary gland) or artificial (synthetic (human) hormones). For the first method, the gland needs to be harvested, grinded and added to 1 ml of saline solution. There are also ready-made pituitary solutions on sale. For the second method, click here to learn more about the different types of hormones and the recommended quantities.

• Injecting the female fish with hormones.Once you have decided on the type of hormones, it is time to inject your fish. Before you do it, it is best to tranquilise the fish, but be extra careful not to overdo it. Take the syringe with the calculated dose and inject the fish at a 45-degree angle several centimetres away from lateral line, around the midsection. Then leave the fish be for about 12 hours.

• Preparing the strip. When the time is up, take your fish, wipe it dry, cover its head with a soft cloth and strip the eggs by pressing the fish’s stomach. As for the males, they are not that lucky. You have to kill them by cutting them open through the stomach and removing the milt sac with the testes.

• Preparing the eggs. Mix the milt with saline solution and introduce the mixture to the eggs in a bowl. Mix it all thoroughly but carefully for about a minute. Add clean water to begin fertilisation. After that, spread the eggs on the spawning sponge and put it in the incubator full of water. Make sure it is fully submerged and not floating on top.

• Hatching the eggs. In about 24-35 hours, you should be able to see your catfish fingerlings. They would descend to the bottom of the incubator. When you think that all the fry have hatched, take the sponge out, put it in another bowl/incubator and give it a good shake. This will help the fry trapped in the sponge to get out. If you do not do this, you risk losing quite a lot of fingerlings.

You are done! As you can see, it is really not that hard, but the better your technique is, the better results you can expect. So practice on a few fish, and you will be able to grow your farm in no time!

Watch the video below:

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Water Quality Management in Catfish Farming (More than Just Feeding)

Digital pH meter

When you are talking about water management in fish farming, you should have your thought around the pH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia (NH4), and Oxygen levels in pond water.

Any fish farmer/Grow out farmer that wants to record a high survival rate of fish and better growth in record time in their various types of ponds must endeavour to pay good attention to pond water quality.

Apprehending and predicting catfish performance in our various types of ponds can be relatively difficult without prior knowledge of how water parameters influence catfish behaviour.

Some years back, I have observed that most fish farmers and grow out farmers that operate good ponds, stocked with the right quantity of fish seeds, still recorded huge losses even though they fed their fish very well.

This is due to poor knowledge of fish water management/chemistry.

Catfish, unlike other animals, feed and defecate inside the same water/pond where they live and the quality of the water inside their habitat directly affects feed/feeding efficiency, the rate at which they grow, survival and the state of health of the catfish.

When water quality depreciates, feed consumed by catfish is not properly converted into body flesh. Poor growth is recorded or observed, fish survival is affected and ultimately massive catfish death may occur.

Important Water Quality Management Parameters In Catfish Farming

In catfish production, water quality parameters which need to be continually monitored are

• Dissolved oxygen
• The temperature of the pond water
• pH(Potential of hydrogen)
• Ammonia(NH4) concentration in the pond water.

Due to dynamics within our different types of ponds, these parameters could change at short notices/observations. I need to share my experience and observation with fish farmers concerning the various ways in which the fluctuations of these water parameters could influence catfish health, catfish growth, and catfish survival.

1. Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in Catfish Pond Water

The relevance of monitoring the level of dissolved oxygen(DO) in our types of ponds is very important and necessary. For the African catfish, a fish farmer/breeder should try as much as possible to maintain dissolved oxygen levels at between 4mg/liter to saturation levels in the pond/hatchery.

Gas bubble disease can happen to catfish/fries when DO levels are constantly too high and the water is super-saturated to well above 300 percent.

When DO level is consistently between 1.5mg/liter to 5mg/liter, catfish/fries will be alive, but feed intake will reduce drastically. The catfish growth rate will also reduce and high Feed Conversion Ratios (FCR) will be observed or recorded.

Also, when DO levels are lower than 1.5mg/liter, catfish will be stressed and they will start dying. The periods of achieving desired weights in catfish will be lengthened and ultimate loss on investment will occur.

In fact, I can categorically emphasize that with consistently low levels of DO(dissolved oxygen)in our various type of ponds, the use of low-quality feed might even be a waste of money.

This is because of the fact that catfish breathe in oxygen for general body metabolism. DO is needed to help break down any potentially harmful metabolic waste into less harmful forms, e.g ammonia (NH3) broken down into nitrites (NO2) and then into nitrates (NO3).

2. Temperature Management in Catfish Farming:

Catfish is a cold-blooded aquatic animal. Unlike man that is warm-blooded, their metabolism which occurs in their bodies is greatly influenced by the water temperature.

For the African Catfish/Dutch Clarias, an acceptable temperature range is between 26ºC to 32ºC.

When water temperature in our various type of ponds consistently stays between 16ºC and 26ºC, feed intake reduces and catfish growth rate also drags tremendously. A grow out farmer will record high FCR, and the fish will also be stressed.

Tardy or prolonged stress can open up the catfish to opportunistic infections. When catfish are consistently exposed to temperatures below 15ºC, catfish growth will ultimately stop and death is just around the corner.

Very low temperature negatively affects rates at which wastes are converted into the water. However, when water temperature is above 32ºC, the resultant effect on the African Catfish/Dutch Strain Clarias is not good at all.

This is because of the fact that Oxygen is not readily soluble in very warm water. The high temperature in ponds will stress the catfish and eventually lead to death.

3. pH (potential of hydrogen) of Pond Water:

pH is the level of the Hydrogen ion present in the water. For the catfish in the pond, the acceptable pH value is between 6.5 to 7.5. When it is below 4, catfish will die due to water acidity.

I have personally experienced this and it was not in any way good at all.

When pH is constantly between 4 to 6, catfish will be alive, but due to stress, they will experience slow growth. The feed intake will be highly staggered and reduced. FCR will also be very high.

In fact, for those observant fish farmers, low pH in pond water is an indication of high CO2, (carbon dioxide) in the water.

Very high pH values of between 9 to 11 in catfish pond water will also retard catfish growth. Catfish will ultimately die when pH levels rise above 11.

Low pH aids higher proportions of ionized ammonia which is less toxic to catfish. The reverse is the case with high pH in water.

Digital pH meter

Digital pH meter

4. Ammonia(NH4) Concentration in Pond Water

Ammonia is harmful to fish if allowed to accumulate in fish pond water. Once ammonia accumulates to harmful levels, fish cannot extract energy from the feed with efficiency.

If the ammonia concentration gets too high, the fish can become slow or inactive and may eventually die.

In properly managed fish ponds, ammonia rarely accumulates to fatal concentrations. However, ammonia will have slightly fatal effects—such as reduced growth, poor feed conversion rate, and reduced resistance to disease—at concentrations that are less than fatal concentrations.

Conclusion

There is nothing as painful as being ignorant of these facts. These water parameters play a major role in the overall business of profitable fish farming.

Making profit/money from fish farming goes beyond just giving food to the catfish. You must continuously monitor and control your fish pond water. 

The growth time of catfish in our various type of ponds must be within acceptable times. Nothing is as painful as keeping catfish in ponds for an unnecessarily long period of time while money is being wasted on feed.

You’ve come a long way in reading this article to this point. Please leave a comment to tell us how helpful you find this post.

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Credit:

This article is a compilation of the lecture presented by Prof. Wealth Ubi

Hotlines: 08138570184

WhatsApp: wa.me/2348138570184

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