How to Make Catfish Feed at Home to Maximize Profit

Do you desire more profit in catfish farming? If yes, then this post is meant for you. Here you will learn how to make or Produce catfish feed at home.

Here are what you will learn in this post:

1. Types of fish feed
2. Catfish feed formulation
3. Raw materials needed
4. Measurements
5. Definition of terms

Catfish farming is one of the money-spinning businesses anyone can have either as the first or second source of income. Practical knowledge is, therefore, needed before venturing into the business to avoid losses. It is advisable to get trained or rather seek expert advice going forward.

Previously, on the “Cost of feeding 1000 catfish”, we said feeding takes up to 70% of all the expenditure in catfish farming. Are you surprised!

Local feed formulation for catfish in Nigeria or any other country where the fish business thrives is a sure bet to maximize profit.

As far as the catfish business is concerned any serious farmer who wants to succeed must learn how to make his own feed at home or in his farm. You can achieve this with a locally made pellet machine, extruder or molding with your hands. Either way, the goal is to minimize the amount that goes into feeding.

Different Types of Fish Feed

Basically, there are two major feed for any kind of fish;

Natural feed and

Supplementary feed.

Natural sources are tiny aquatic insects, plants, grasses, basal organic elements, and plankton algae. They are feed that helps the fish survive especially when there is an absence of a supplementary source. Supplementary feeds are mostly foreign or locally produced ones. The growth of the fish is better enhanced with supplementary sources rich in crude protein and all vitamins.

Raw materials for the formulation of the supplementary feed include; rice bran, fish meal, silk kit meal, groundnut seed, maize/corn, blood meal, groundnut cake, vegetable oil, cassava flakes, and premix (consisting of minerals and vitamins). Supplementary feed for fish provides balanced nutrition needed for the growth of the fish.

How to Make Catfish Feed at Home

Catish feed formulation is done using different methods. For the purpose of this post, we will be combining both the formula and the measurement. You can call the method below formula one.

Let’s say you have 1000 catfish stocked in your pond! Here is what to do.

Material	Measurement (kg)
Premix sachet  0.25%	1 kg
Maize/corn	119kg
Palm oil/ vegetable oil	50kg
Palm kern cake	18.8kg
Blood meal 80% CP	50kg
Fish meal 56% CP	225kg
Soybean meal	400kg
Groundnut cake	50kg
Mathionine	0.07kg
Lysine – HCI	5kg
Total Weight	1000kg

NB: you can use the materials with the measurement above to produce both floating and sinking feed.

First, mix all the materials (ingredients) listed on the table above together in a bowl or on a clean dry floor. You can use your hand or shovel for the mixing. Before then, grind to powder all the materials that need to be grinded, such as maize, soybeans, groundnut, etc.

Take your time to mix them thoroughly until you have a uniform mixture. Now, the feed is ready to use. If you have an extruder it will pelletize the feed to become floating fish feed.

 In the absence of an extruder, you take any quantity of the mixture you need at present, introduce hot water into it and turn it very well then you can use a local pellet machine to pelletize the feed. At this stage, you can use a local pellet machine or mold the feed with your hand to any size then introduce then to the pond for the fish to feed on.

Meaning of Teams

Blood meal: is cooked and dried blood of cattle, goats, sheep, pigs or chicken.

CP: means crude protein

Methionine: is a pure amino aside required in the feed.

Lysine –HCI: is a pure amino acid used to optimize for lysine amino acid requirement in feed.

Premix: contains all the essential nutrients that may be missing from the raw materials for the production.

Conclusion

Local feed formulation for catfish whether in Nigeria or elsewhere should not be neglected as it forms the basis of cost reduction in the business.

However, what we have here is just one method (formula) to make or produce feed for your catfish either at home or in your farm. There are other several formulas available. Just stick to what works for you.

Fish farming is interesting if you understand that producing your own feed will reduce costs and help you maximize profit.

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