HOW TO START A CATFISH FARM

CATFISH FARMING is the act of keeping catfish sometimes it can be leisure or it could be for 

commercial purposes , but for our discussion we shall be talking about keeping them for commercial 

purposes .

Catfish on its own is a type of fish many farmers prefer to stock it because of its ruggedness and this 

makes it to have very high commercial value , catfish is also in high demand because it could be served 

as barbecue , grilled , pepper soup , dry fish or even used to prepare soups stew or as side food , 

because of this it has an endless market demand .

Now for an intending catfish farmer i will break down the process of starting and discuss this process

 in subsequent discussion and in the interest of clarity i will answer any question that may arise

so if you want to start a catfish farm the first thing to consider is 

a, AVAILABILITY OF COMMERCIAL WATER

b, SPACE / POND

c, MARKET SURVEY

d, CAPACITY

e, STOCKING

f, MANAGEMENT 

g, SALES

Like i said we shall be discussing each of the listed process one after another for us to understand each 

process the reason many catfish farmers fail is that they ignore this process and just stock , well we 

have to understand that fishes survive in anything that holds water but what makes a catfish farmer is 

not just keeping fishes inside the water but ability to make good result from the fishes kept 

AVALABILITY  OF COMMERCIAL WATER: Catfish lives 100% of its life in water so enough 

 

water is needed in raising them , before you start a catfish farm its very important to confirm the 

 

availability of water in the area the farm is intended to be. 

 

If you are digging a borehole you will need your geophysics analyst to give you a reading that 

 

will indicate that the water level is of a commercial quantity , if the reading is showing domestic 

 

such place will not be suitable for catfish farm.

           it very imperative to note that you can't manage water in catfish farm no matter the circumstance            
           because shortage of water can lead to contamination of the ponds which will lead to massive                  
           deaths of the catfish.

            shortage of water can lead to stunted growth in the farm.

             so on no account must water be managed in sighting a catfish farm .

             So in considering sighting a fish farm water availability is the first thing to be considered.

 SPACING / POND ; Pond is the housing used to accommodate catfish , its said that anything

           that holds water can serve as the housing or accommodation for catfish since catfish live in the

            water but this is where many catfish farmers get it wrong , for anything to be called a good pond

           for housing of catfish fish it must provide very good ground space where the fishes will always

           settle it doesn't matter if the upper space is also very wide and long but the ground space should

          be also very wide.

           This because fishes will always come down to sleep and if they find it very tight to stay they

            might eat each other or injure their selves while struggling for space .

          So the best pond site for catfish should have very good ground space and at least a height of 4ft 

          tall be able to accommodate a 3ft high water level

          

         Market Survey : this is one of the most critical part in starting a catfish farm but many intending             

        catfish farmers over look this.

        In doing this you must confirm the immediate consumption demand of your area and your target 

        market , this is because you must produce to fit your demand you cant just produce without                    

       having a viable demand in fact in most cases this leads to first time farmers crashing out due to              

      frustration from buyers who are only interested in marking a fortune out of any situation .

      In doing this market survey you need to consider

     Size of fish in demand ; in some places very big fishes of 2kg and above is highly demanded but in        

      some places they may prefer 1kg and below so in doing your market survey you will know the             

     category to produce.

   You need to also find out if its dry fish or fresh fish that is in demand in your area because in some          

   places the demand for dry fish fish maybe more than that of fresh fish vice versa 

You need to also know who are your potential buyers are they the middle men or are they the direct 

consumers this information will help you to have a standby market so that immediately after 

production you already have a market .

You need to also know the capacity of your intending buyers this forms part of your production plan ,  

if  you don't put this into consideration and you over produce what your buyers can buy up it will 

create confusion, frustration and give greedy buyers opportunity to under price your fishes at the end of 

each circle of production .

Most catfish farmers don't consider this points and it has ended up making their buyers king over them 

and thus pushed many farmers outside the business.

CAPACITY ; Here  an intending catfish farmer evaluates his/her capability to handle the stock by comparing the amount of intended stock to capacity to feed and size of pond to use . its imperative to note that most new catfish farmers usually believe that catfish don't eat much and will always eat any available food while this is true that a hungry catfish can eat practically any available food the problem is that this feed may not give you the desired result because all the essential components of feed may not the present in the feed you gave them .

In other words their is no short cut to feeding don't waste your time chasing shadows simply calculate your target weight of expectation to your feeding approach 

you can subscribe to our YouTube channel letusfarm to watch and listen on how we explained this further , its also important to note that the feeding of catfish will not work on a mathematical approach but better on a practical approach.

STOCKING : The next is stocking , stocking of the good breeds matters a lot if you stock wrong fish no matter the amount of feeding they will not do well , for me its best to stock from a farm that their job is mainly hatching and selling than stocking from a catfish farmer who stocks from what he hatched and sells also, the reason is that a farm that does hatching and selling will most likely give you best grade fingerling or juvenile while a farm that stocks and sells will likely stock the best and sell the runts .

As a beginner i always advice farmers to start from juvenile instead of fingerling the reason is that juveniles are easier to manage than fingerlings and juveniles will pick up fast in growth than fingerling forget about that fact that fingerling is cheaper when you put cost of feeding and death rate from fingerling to juvenile you will understand the differences and you should also note that management of fingerling is not as easy like that of juvenile because at fingerling age risk of water contamination is higher than that of juvenile 

MANAGEMENT ; This is a great decider of the performance of your fishes because if you don't change water regularly , feed your fishes to satisfaction and maintain enough pond space you have already invited failure in the business  , so its very important to maintain very good management level to achieve great success and reduce mortality rate in the business

SALES ; This is the last stage and most critical stage like i said at the begging you have to have a target market , so that after production you don't have issues looking for buyers because if you are stranded looking for buyers then the buyers noticing your frustration will under price your product and this has lead to the closure of many catfish farmers .

Prices are mostly determined by location and prevailing market demands so before you sell try and go round to sample the current market prices this will help you not to over price or under price your fishes , remember fishes are perishable don't expose them to dry area during sales they must always be kept inside water to avid dehydration and high mortality during sales.

you can subscribe to our youtube channels for more https://youtube.com/watch?v=L-NQN6_MBTc&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE