Homestead Catfish Farming Business Ideas: How to start a Home Grown Catfish Farm

Catfish farming is a lucrative business opportunity that is small or large scale. The fish farm is applicable to commercial farming or home use purposes.

Many countries are slowly embracing this important protein source with great results. It’s a known fact that protein requirements in most countries fall short of demand.

This makes alternative sources like piggery, chicken, snail and fish farming lucrative. The amount of fish you farm dictates your capital investment.

In catfish farming the major expenditure after all physical structures are built is feeding. The animal needs to feed at least once a day to attain table sized fish.

The great thing about the business is that the fish attracts premium prices in the open market. The farmer only needs to grow his fish to 1kg to reap huge profit.

 Other interesting facts are the business works part time or full time and you need a little space to make money. If you are unemployed, a retiree or an entrepreneur looking for viable business, fish farming is your best bet.

There are two kinds of farmers the breeder or grow out farmers. Large farms combine both disciplines effectively. Both sectors are very lucrative and have different requirements and equipment.

Let us see how to start your homestead catfish farm

Draw out a Plan

You need to know exactly what you are getting into before starting the enterprise. Draw up a plan that includes price of building a pond, location, cost of fingerlings and cost of feed.

 Other considerations involve medication, staff, understanding government regulations, marketing and learning the job. A major aspect of your plan is sourcing finance and sales outlets. Once you have drawn up a plan of action then you can start.

Get Finance

If you want to operate a large farm you need lots of money. However a homestead fish farm demands moderate expenditure.

Get finance from personal savings, relations or small commercial bank loans. Another way is join someone into business partnership.

The profit taking might be based on an agreed percentage based on the actual profit.

Government Regulations

Government regulations defer in relation to fish farming, especially home grown farming. Find out what the laws allow and the provisions to operate the business.

You might need to register your company if you are going fully commercial. Study the guidelines in your country before laying the foundation.

Find a Good Location

You have two options building your farm at home or securing a land for farming. It is better to buy a land or locate your business at home than letting a property.

The amount of fish depends on the size of the landed space you need. To conveniently farm 1000 fish you only need about 12 square feet of pond.

This works if the pond is an above ground pond or earthen pond.

Constructing your Pond

There are three basic ponds that work for your homestead farm. You can construct an above ground pond, buy a plastic pond or dig a dugout pond. The above ground pond consists of the concrete pond and the block pond.

The dugout pond is referred to as the earthen pond. Each pond has measures of difficulty when constructing however the earthen pond is more technical.

To construct a block pond get a qualified bricklayer to do the job. The pond walls are built up with 5 layers of block for the height. The block should be placed on the entire 12 feet to make a solid enclosure.

The inner ways are then made water tight by either adding a tarpaulin cover or waterproof cement. The same construction technique is applied to concrete ponds.

During the construction process the bricklayer can introduce an inlet and outlet. Catfish needs lots of fresh water and the water changed at least once every two days.

Earthen ponds are more technical because you dig a pit, reinforce the walls to avoid leakage and introduce outlet and inlet.

The simplest of the lot is buying a ready made plastic pond. The plastic pond already has provisions for inlet and outlet.

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Buying your Fingerlings

Your fish goes through the growth process as an egg, and then it develops into fry then fingerlings. The fingerlings grow further into your adults called juveniles before becoming adult fish.

The entire process to full adulthood takes seven months. The fish farmer needs to buy his fingerlings from a reputable farmer. The quality of the fingerlings impacts both positively and negatively on your profit margin.

To ensure success buy fast growing fingerlings called shooters. The shooters are fish from the same stock that have attained exceptional fast growth in a relatively short period.

Ask you fish breeder for shooter to guarantee good yield.

Stock your Pond

You have located a good land, built your pond and bought fingerlings. The next step is stocking your pond. You need to acclimatize the fish before introducing them into your pond.

The pond with dimensions earlier suggested can conveniently accommodate 1000 fishes. A thousand fish will fetch about $2000 in the open market if they attain over 1kg each.

Feeding

The cost of fingerlings is cheap however feeding them to adulthood costs money. Fingerlings in their first month will cost you little money on feed because despite their veracious appetite the volume consumed is negligible.

Juveniles are ravenous and eat lots of feed you spend 40% of expected profit on food. Fish feed has different mm grades according to the size of he fish.

The feed has different sizes to accommodate the fast growing fish. The best type of feed is the floating ones load with nutrients for fast development.

Buy your fish feed from feed retailers and stock or buy as required. Feed your fish once or twice a day for maximum yield.

Avoid over feeding to avoid water contamination and death of your stock. Study their eating habit, mobility and eye color to identify healthy or sick fish.

Effective feeding and proper water management is the secret to fast growing fish.

Water Change

Use your outlet and inlet to control the water in the pond. Catfish although tough and sturdy will die in a polluted fish pond. The sources of your water include tap water, wells, borehole, rain water and fresh ware streams.

Selling your Stock

There are many ways to sell your stock and make money. You can sell to fish trades, individuals in your locality and market women.

A more lucrative measure is processing the fish for export. To export the fish dry or smoke it and seal the dried fish in airtight nylon. Smoked dry fish is used as a seasoning in many meals.

 Smoked fish is a delicacy in many homes especially in Africa.

Market your Product

Market your product in newspapers, radio talk shows and word of mouth. Use posters, handbills and business cards to attract customers.

The business does not have a franchise format and its difficult selling your fish online. To reach buyers in your locality use classified advertisements like Adwords or Facebook groups.

Breeding Catfish Business

To venture into breeding you need proper training and technical skills. The breeding process involves injecting hormones into the fish and extracting eggs.

The eggs are mixed with the male’s sp and in several hours’ young fry. Catfish is capable of producing ten thousand fry from one adult catfish. The breeder makes money selling directly to fish farmers.

Conclusion

Catfish farming is not time consuming because once they are feed and the water is clean they are happy. Many unemployed youths can benefit doing this business venture.

Are you interested in fish farming then learn everything you need to know about the business on this blog-   www.catfishfarmingng.blogspot.com