Growing feed for small scale fish farming

Animal Options Aquaculture (Fish and Related)
#1

To whom it may concern,

We sponsor a number of projects in the Lower Zambezi, Zambia, we are urgently seeking advice on what feed we can grow for small scale fish farming as feed costs are exorbitant and not sustainable. Anyone who can assist please advise asap.

Best regards,

Richard Wilson

#3

What type(s) of fish are you raising?

I have lots of information, including 25MB of documents just on tilapia.

You can search ECHO for fish:
https://www.echocommunity.org/en/search?q=fish

#4

i can only confirm Robert: in fish farming it is essential to know what fish. Depending on the species it can be very demanding and not to forget the question of "When can a fish farm claim to be «species-appropriate? "

#6

Hi Richard!

I agree, you will have to create a feed that specifically meets the needs of the fish species that you are growing. The ECHO Asia office recently published a book by Keith Mikkelson about on-farm feeds that includes fish feeds. They also have a write-up about fish feed in specific here: http://edn.link/4qyafk
Keith mentions in the article, that with on-farm feeds you have to pay close attention to how the fish are growing on the feed and change in response to what normal growth patterns should be. Common ingredients that are high in protein for on-farm fish feeds include:

  • Azolla
  • Moringa
  • Duckweed
  • Various meals/brans

What feed-stock resources to you have available? I have always wanted to try drying down Leucaena leucocephala and try it in a fish feed.

You can use the resource Feedipedia.org to learn more about the potential of specific species to be used for fish feeds. For example, about Leucaena leucocephala, Feedipedia summarizes:

Leaves:
It is possible to feed African and Asian catfish ( Clarias gariepinus and Clarias macrocephalus ) with leucaena leaf meal as a protein source (Hossain et al., 1997; Santiago et al., 1997): 30% inclusion is suitable for African catfish (Hossain et al., 1997). However, in Asian catfish, results obtained with leucaena leaf meal were inferior to those obtained with copra meal or fish meal(Santiago et al., 1997).

#8

Moringa leaf meal may be a possibility.