By Joshua Kato
Effective feeding of fish is the key to a profitable fish enterprise. The feed should be able to provide the nutrients required for the growth and survival of the fish.
The amount of feed a fish can consume each day is determined by its body weight. Normally, it is 5% of its body weight for newly stocked fingerlings. Feed percentages drop as the fish mature to at least 1% as they near full maturity.
For example, if fingerlings weigh on average 45 grams after 4-5 weeks in the pond, the total percentage of feed is 3.8%x45grams=1.7g. Well-fed fish will have gained at least 122 grams by the 9th week.
By this time, they should be feeding around 3% of their body weight which is around 3.7 grams. You then multiply feeds per fish by the number of fish in the pond to get the total amount of feeds that are dropped in the pond.
Feeds must be dry and not mouldy before they are dropped in water. Farmers are advised to use fish pellets because they are easily consumed by the fish, compared to the flour like feeds.
Well-fed tilapia or catfish should be at least 1kg after eight months. These are now ready for harvesting.
