3 Best Catfish Feed Formulas in Nigeria

Welcome bag to this tutorial site. In today’s post, we have put together what we consider the best catfish feed formulas you can find in Nigeria for your fish to thrive.

The idea is to provide you with four different formulas you can pick from any time you want to formulate your catfish feed.

Catfish feed production is one of the major challenges farmers encounter in this field. The reason could be due to the inability to put different combinations of ingredients to make the perfect feed.

Lack of experience also contributes to this challenge. Understand that farmers who produce feed for their fish will reduce the cost of feeding by 40%. Feeding constitutes the largest portion of the cost of production covering about 70% of money spent by the farmers.

See our work on the cost of feeding 1000 catfish to have an understanding of why you need to learn local feed production to supplement.

Production of fish feeds would be easy when farmers are provided with different formulas and this is what we intend to achieve here.

It is important to understand the types of ingredients needed to produce high-quality fish feed. These formulas are for the production of quality feed. Remember that there are other alternative feeds for catfish rich with essential nutrients you could use to supplement with the foreign feeds.

Sample of Formulas Best for Catfish Feed in Nigeria

Tables presented below are formulas for catfish feed that will best serve your needs.

You can use these formulas at any growth stage (post fingerlings, jumbo, and adult).

Why are we doing this? Just to help ourselves as fish farmers

Please, pay attention to the total kg for each formula

Formula 1

Ingredients	Quantity (kg)
Soybean meal	30kg
Maize	25kg
Groundnut cake	20kg
Fish meal (75%)	25kg
Methionine	0.1
Lysine	0.1
Fish premix	0.5
Vitamin C	0.1
Salt	0.2
Dicalcium phosphate (DCP)	1
Total	105 kg

Formula 2

Ingredients	Quantity (kg)
Cassava flakes (Garri)	0.5kg
Broiler super starter	1.5kg
Extracted GMC	1kg
Wheat offal	0.5kg
maize	1.5kg
Soybean meal	1.5kg
Fish meals	1kg
Vegetable oil	Small quantity
Total	8 kg

Formula 3

Ingredients	Quantity (kg)
Cassava flakes (Garri)	10kg
Broiler super starter	50kg
Soybean meal	10kg
Vegetable oil	½ kg
maize	5kg
Total	80 kg

These are what we consider as our best catfish feed formulas for feed production in Nigeria.

Key Nutrients for Quality Feed

There are four most important nutrients that should be present while formulating any kind of feed. There are protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and fats and oil.

Protein 

Protein is one of the first nutritional needs for catfish growth. Therefore, it becomes to first consider protein content as it helps for building body tissue and replacement of damaged tissue.

It can be obtained from Groundnut cake, blood meal, fish meal, soybean meal, and methionine.

Other alternative sources like duckweed can help. Find out how you can grow duckweed for your catfish to reduce cost. Black soldier flies are equally good source of protein for catfish.

Carbohydrate

This nutrient is equally needed in fish feed production as it is as of energy.

Carbohydrate provides the energy needed by catfish for living. Grains of cereals, corn, and cassava are the major source of this nutrient.

Vitamins and Minerals

The growth, health, and body processes of the catfish are controlled by vitamins and minerals.

Examples of vitamins include vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, minerals iron, copper, magnesium, calcium e.tc

Fat and Oil

Fat contains vital fatty acids and also enhances energy. An example is Palm kernel cake (PKC), vegetable oil, and groundnut

Factors Affecting Catfish Feed Formula

• Age and size of catfish (fingerlings, juveniles, adult)
• Nutritional needs of catfish (protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals)
• Availability and cost of ingredients in Nigeria
• Palatability of the feed (what catfish prefer to eat)

Popular Catfish Feed Ingredients in Nigeria

Here we have both the local and commercially available ingredients.

• Locally available ingredients:
  • Groundnut cake (GNC)
  • Soybean meal
  • Maize
  • Cassava flakes (Garri)
  • Blood meal
• Commercially available ingredients:
  • Fish meal
  • Vitamins and mineral premixes

Benefits of Using a Good Catfish Feed Formula

• Faster growth rate
• Improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) – less feed wasted
• Stronger immune system and healthier catfish
• Increased profitability for catfish farmers

Conclusion

Production of fish feed is easy when farmers understand the intricacies. As feeding cost constitutes about 70% of the expenditure in fish farming, we have provided formulas you can use in Nigeria to produce one of the best feed for your catfish locally.

We have also provided in another article how to make catfish feed at home. Combine the knowledge with the formulas provided here and you are good to go.

Drop your reaction in the comment box below.