Catfish Production - Technology and Livelihood Education pdf

1. CATFISH
PRODUCTION
Prepared by:
Roma Diane R. Aviguetero
MAEd - TLE
TLE 504: Fish Culture/Capture/Processing

2. CATFISH
 Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or
Nematognathi (Scaleless fishes) are a diverse
group of ray-finned fish.
 Named for their prominent barbels, which
resemble a cat's whiskers. Despite their name, not
all catfish have prominent barbels or "whiskers".
 Catfish range in size and behavior from the three
largest species alive, the Mekong giant catfish
from Southeast Asia, the wels catfish of Eurasia,
and the piraíba of South America, to detritivores
(species that eat dead material on the bottom),
and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly
called the candiru,Vandellia cirrhosa.

3. LARGEST
CATFISH IN
THE WORLD
Mekong giant catfish from Southeast
Asia
Wels catfish of Eurasia
Piraíba of South America

4. CATFISH
 Clarias batrachus is a black, slippery fish with
mustache to aid it in swimming. It is called
catfish in English, hito in Ilocos, ito in
Pampanga, and pantat in Pangasinan, Cebu
and Iloilo.
 Catfish are usually found in marshes, ricefields,
swamps, streams, rivers, lakes irrigation canals,
or in any body or fresh water.

5. CATFISH
SHELTERS

6. PARTS OF
A
CATFISH
Fins are
appendages used
by the fish to
maintain position,
move, steer and
stop.
Paired nostrils,
or nares, in fish
are used to
detect odors in
water and can be
quite sensitive.
Fish can
detect
color.
One of the fish's primary
sense organs, this detects
underwater vibrations and
is capable of determining
the direction of their
source.
Barbel is loaded
with tiny taste buds
and special
olfactory sensors to
help the fish smell.
The operculum is a series of
bones found in bony fish
that serves as a facial
support structure and a
protective covering for the
gills; it is also used for
respiration and feeding.
The caudal fin is
the main fin for
propulsion to
move the fish
forward

7. CATFISH
POND
PREPARATION
 The site and design of the pond(s) may be the
most important factors to the profitability of
the catfish farm.
 Levee ponds built on flat land are most suitable
for commercial catfish production.
 In hilly terrain, ponds must be built by
constructing dams across valleys between
hillsides so that runoff from rainfall on the
watershed will be stored behind the dam.
Naturally, any site that does not have a reliable
source of water will not be suitable for catfish
production.

8. LEVEE
PONDS

9. CATFISH
POND
PREPARATION
 Pond size depends on terrain and market
options. Commercial catfish farmers selling to
processors usually build 5- to 10-acre ponds.
 Larger ponds can be harvested more often
than smaller ponds because the inventory of
food-size fish will be larger. However, small
ponds may be easier to feed and to manage for
water quality and diseases.

10. CATFISH
POND
PREPARATION
 Levee ponds should be 4 to 6 feet, usually with a 6-inchper-
100-foot (0.5 percent) bottom slope toward the drain
(depending on the size of the pond).
The steps in constructing a levee pond are:
1. removing vegetation and topsoil and stockpiling the topsoil
(Fig. 4);
2. digging the core trench for the levee into good clay subsoil;
3. placing the water supply lines and drain lines (Fig. 5);
4. filling and compacting the core with the best clay from the
pond site;
5. completing the levee and its slopes with other pond site soils;
and
6. covering the above-the-waterline levee surfaces with the
previously removed topsoil.

13. Levee topsshouldbe
atleast 14feet wide to
supportvehicles.
Levees shouldbe
seededwith
appropriategrasses
immediately after
constructiontocontrol
erosion,andlevee tops
mayneed somegravel
sovehicles cantravel
during wet seasons.

15. Growing
catfish in
the
Philippines
 Catfish (Clarias macrocephalus) is indigenous in Philippine
waters, thus, Filipinos are familiar with it as a food fish and a
lot consider its taste as excellent. But as with most indigenous
food species that are constantly extracted, our native
Philippine catfish, locally called native or hitong tagalog can
no longer be found in abundance.
 The imported African catfish (C.gariepinus) is more abundant.
Filipinos have readily accepted it perhaps because of their
familiarity with the native catfish. Most catfish eaters say that
the two species taste the same and dealers pass the African
catfish as native to encourage hesitant buyers.
 Few people know that our native catfish do not grow as large
as the African and that catfish in the markets are seldom
native as these are not grown in commercial quantity.
Production of the African catfish, however, is low and its
market remains undeveloped.

17. CATFISH
BREEDING
Step 1: Identify and separate the sexes
Step 2: Select and check for a gravid female (ie female with ripe eggs)
Step 3: Weigh the female fish
Step 4: Prepare the female catfish for injection
Step 5: Isolate the injected fish in a comfortable, big bowl and wait for 10 to 12 hours
Step 6: Prepare to strip the fish, set up your incubator
Step 7: Bring the fish out after 10 to 12 hours gently and cover the head with a clean, moist
towel
Step 8: Wipe the body of the fish dry using a dry, soft towel
Step 9: Strip the fish (ie press the eggs out of the fish)
Step 10: Weigh the stripped eggs
Step 11: Bring the male out, kill it, turn the belly up and cut it open
Step 12: Remove the milt sac
Step 13: Cut the testicles into bits to release the sperm
Step 14: Add saline solution to the milt
Step 15: Pour the mixture of saline solution and milt to the stripped eggs in the bowl
Step 16: Mix thoroughly and add fresh, clean, water
Step 17: Spread the eggs inside the incubator on the spawning sponge
Step 18: Wait 20 to 36 hours
Step 19: Observe the newly hatched eggs, with yolk still visible and attached to the fry

18. Step 1: Identify and separate the sexes Step 2: Select and check for a gravid
female (ie female with ripe eggs)
Photograph showing method of pressing eggs out of a
gravid female African Catfish
Determining sexes in the African Catfish

19. Step 3: Weigh the female fish
Ovaprim, an example of
a synthetic hormone.
Collect the solution and Inject the
female fish using an hypodermic
syringe.
Add 1ml saline solution.
Grind the pituitary using a pestle
until it becomes powder.
Put the pituitary inside a
laboratory mortar.
Dried African Catfish
pituitary gland
Photograph showing a gravid
female on a table scale.

20. Step 4: Prepare the female catfish for
injection
Photograph showing how to inject
the African Catfish

21. Step 5: Isolate the injected fish in a
comfortable, big bowl and wait for 10 to 12
hours
Step 6: Prepare to strip the fish, set up your
incubator
Photograph showing an incubator set-up for the stripped
African Catfish eggs
Photograph showing Isolated African Catfish after injecting
with synthetic hormone

22. Step 7: Bring the fish out after 10 to 12
hours gently and cover the head with a
clean, moist towel
Step 8: Wipe the body of the fish dry using
a dry, soft towel
Photograph showing how to carefully wipe water off the
body of the Female catfish

23. Step 9: Strip the fish (ie press the eggs out of
the fish)
Step 10: Weigh the stripped eggs
Photograph showing how to gently press the Female
African Catfish abdomen to collect the eggs

24. Step 11: Bring the male out,
kill it, turn the belly up and
cut it open
Step 12: Remove the milt sac
Photograph sowing the milt sac in the
Male African Catfish
Photograph showing the milt sac of the
male African Catfish
Photograph showing how to
cut open the Male African
Catfish in order to remove to
remove the Milt sac

25. Step 13: Cut the testicles into bits to release
the sperm
Step 14: Add saline solution to the milt

26. Step 15: Pour the mixture of saline
solution and milt to the stripped eggs in
the bowl
Step 16: Mix thoroughly and add fresh,
clean, water
Photograph showing water being added to the
mixture of eggs, saline solution and milt from
the male African catfish.
Continue mixing to prevent eggs from sticking
together.
Photograph showing the Incubator set-up

27. Step 17: Spread the eggs inside the incubator on
the spawning sponge
Step 18: Wait 20 to 36 hours
Diagram showing the spawning net, spawning
sponge arrangement in an incubator
Photograph showing the Incubator set-up

28. Step 19:
Observe the
newly hatched
eggs, with
yolk still
visible and
attached to
the fry
Newly hatched African catfish eggs

29. CATFISH
DISTRIBUTION
Fertilized eggs are placed in
hatchery tanks
After a week, the sac fry live
off the yolk from the eggs.
They move fingerlings to a
nursery pond.
When they are 4-6 inches in
length , they move them to
catfish pond.

30. CATFISH
FEEDING
HABITS
 Catfish feeds are mainly plant-based, though feeds for fry
and small fingerlings contain some fish meal and other
animal proteins. Major ingredients used in catfish feeds
generally include soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn by-
products, and wheat by-products.
 Catfish fry in hatcheries are fed finely ground meal- or
flour-type feeds containing 45-50 percent protein. Once
the fry are stocked in nursery ponds, they are typically fed
a meal-type feed containing about 40 percent protein.
Some producers feed fry with ”fines” from 28 or 32 percent
protein feeds for food fish grow out until they reach 1-2
inches in length. During this stage, catfish fry can obtain
most of their nutrients from natural foods such as large
zooplankton, small insects, and insect larvae, if the ponds
are properly fertilized.

31. CATFISH
FEEDING
HABITS
 Larger fingerlings are fed small floating pellets (1/8 inch
diameter) containing 35 percent protein. Advanced
fingerlings (5-6 inches) and food fish are generally fed a
floating feed of approximately 5/32 - 3/16 inch in
diameter containing 28-32 percent protein. Some
producers switch to a slow-sinking feed during the
winter.
 Most catfish producers feed once a day, 7 days a week
during the warmer months. Research has shown
feeding twice a day improves growth of fingerlings, but
there is no benefit by feeding twice a day for food fish
grow out.

33. THANKYOU FOR
LISTENING!