This document provides an introduction to self-sustainable domestic aquaculture. It discusses cultivating aquatic organisms like fish, shellfish, and plants under controlled conditions in ponds, cages and tanks. Specific topics covered include the history of aquaculture, different aquaculture practices, recommended species for domestic aquaculture like gouramy and catfish, and considerations for setting up a small home fish pond.

1. An Introduction to Self-Sustainable
Domestic Aquaculture.
NG KOK HONG
aquadomest@gmail.com
8th October 2012

2. Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, shellfish and
even plants.
It is the science, art and business of cultivating of organisms in water
under controlled conditions in artificial containments like ponds, cages
and tanks.
Fish: Tilapia, catfish, gouramy, ornamental fishes.
Shellfish: Prawns, Oyster
Plants: Seaweeds, submergent plants, edible crops like watercress
Pond culture

3. Tank culture
Cage culture

4. Why aquaculture ?
The old Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”
• Stagnated and poor landings from captured fisheries.
• Fish convert more of the food they eat into body mass than land animals.
• Aquaculture farming methodology is flexible.
“The confluence of declining wild fish stocks, increasing world seafood
demand, problems with conventional aquaculture and the emergence of
new technologies are propelling sustainable aquaculture forward.”
Cleantech Investment Insight.

5. Global total wild fish capture and aquaculture production in million tonnes, 1950–
2010, as reported by the FAO.

6. History:
Aquaculture has a long history dating as far as 2500 years ago.
Around 473 B.C. Fan Li wrote his book, “The Classic of Fish
Culture” the earliest known monograph of fish culture.
Aquaculture Practices:
Commercial aquaculture.
High density farming
Non-commercial aquaculture
Semi and low density farming
Domestic aquaculture
Low density farming
Organic wastes & water re-cycling
Monoculture or Polyculture

7. Integrating Domestic Aquaculture in Urban Communities.
Objectives:
1. To gain fish as food for a good source of high quality but cheap protein.
2. To re-cycle organic kitchen wastes & possibility grey water.
3. To achieve low costs production of fish or/and plants.
4. To retain water for functional consumption.
5. For communities to get connected to the natural world by understanding
the nature of fish husbandry and water management.

8. Where to Start ?
For domestic fish farming, best to start with small ponds before further venture
into larger scale farming. Fish farming has no fixed rules but acquiring
experience and knowledge along the way will surely be helpful in the future.
Basic subjects to consider are:
Pond design
Water source & its quality
Seed supplies
Feed and feeding. FCR
Basic understanding of water quality
Common fish diseases

9. Pond Design
The pond for fish farming must be able to retain water at a minimal depth of
500mm. Therefore, pond should be dug at 800 mm minimal depth with 300
mm freeboard.
The size of pond recommended depends on needs and functionality. An ideal
size would be about 40-50 sq. m. of water surface area for experimental
purpose. Typical pond size recommended for production best at 1000 sq. m.
The well being of fish growth very much relates to water surface area rather
then the depth of the pond.
Best to avoid acidic soil base like those near mangroves or high rocky hills.
Typical section of a pond.

10. Home fish pond in Hyderabad.

11. Water Source and Its Quality.
Generally, most of the natural sources of water have good quality and
suitable for fish farming. Sources of clean fresh water from streams, ponds,
tube well and rain are the best.
Grey water input has to be calculated and analysed if fishes grown are meant
for food.
Those to be avoided are the extreme high and low pH water. Like water from
acidic soil or from ex-mining pond.
The pH of water best to be within the range of 6.0 to 7.5
The amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water should not be less than 4 ppm
but best to maintain at least 6 ppm. Water DO can be maintained by
continuous inflowing water from natural source, like a small stream or artificially
aerated with aeration pumps or paddle-wheels.

12. Seed Supplies.
Young fingerlings can be purchased
from local fish hatcheries.
Fish Stocking Density.
For domestic faming, the stocking
density recommended should be from
3-5 pieces/ sq m depending on fish
type.
The lower the stocking density, the
faster the growth of fish and higher
survival rate can be achieved.
For beginners, best to start with a low
stocking rate of not more than 5 / sq m
High density catfish culture.
High feed consumption and
irregular growth rate.
Catfish are air-breather, therefore,
aeration is not necessary.

13. Poor understanding and management of fish pond in high
density farming resulted in massive losses.

14. Feed and feeding.
Commercial fish pellets are readily available in the market.
The frequency of fish feeding is once a day. Since fishes are cold blooded,
therefore feeding during cold weather or during monsoon season can be
recommended on alternate days, „skip feeding‟.
Fingerlings can be fed with rice bran until they are ready for pelleted feed.
The amount to feed is 5% of body weight for the first 2 months and 2.5% for the
subsequent months.
Food Conversion Ration.
FCR is the amount of feed required to produce a unit of fish. FCR is the amount
(kg) of feed needed to produce 1kg fish. The FCR of fish is more efficient than
land animals.
FCR= Total amount of feed fed during a culture period by fishes
Total wet weight gained by fishes
Low FCR = Good Profits
Beef FCR: 8.0
Pork FCR: 4.0
Chicken FCR: 2.0
Fish FCR: <2.0

15. Basic Understanding of Water Quality
Fish releases ammoniacle and nitrogenous wastes in water.
Accumulation of these wastes can be toxic to the fish itself.
Naturally, algae blooms either in suspended or attached form in order to extract
the dissolved wastes. The pond water appears green with algal blooms.
Advantage. The algae extracts nitrogenous wastes and also releases oxygen in
the water.
Disadvantage. The algae consumes dissolved oxygen from the water through
respiration.

16. Basic Pond Ecosystem Model

17. Common Fish Diseases
Fishes in stressed conditions are usually weak and susceptible to diseases. High
density stocking, cold water flushing are some of the causes that stressed the fish.
Common fish diseases are basically of parasitic, fungal or bacterial infections.
Stressed fish tends to loose lots of nutrients. One of the common practice is to add
small quantity of rough salt in water when necessary.
Ichthyophthirius sp.
White spot disease
Argulus sp.
Lernaea cyprinacea
Anchor worm disease Trichodina sp.

18. Ichthyophthirius sp.
White spot disease Argulus infection
Lernaea cyprinacea Fungal infection.
Anchor worm disease

19. Recommended Fish for Domestic Aquaculture: The Giant Gouramy
The giant gouramy, Osphronemus gouramy is an aggressive herbivorous.
They consume many type of plants like tapioca & banana leaves as their main diet. Kitchen left-
overs, fruit peels and other vegetative wastes can be used to feed them. They also consume
pellets and meaty food.
Like the catfishes, gouramies are air breathers, therefore no artificial aeration is required even in
high density culture of these fishes.
Growing gouramy in your ponds should be a good start before further venture into commercial
aquaculture. The art of fish culture for each species varies from one another.
Cumulative stocking of fish fries over a period of time is more a practical approach for domestic
fish farming. This will allow constant harvesting and culling for better growth rate.

22. Gouramy Culture Data.
Pond area: 50 sq.m.
Pond depth: 0.5 m
Pond water volume: 25 cu m or 25,000 litres
Fish fingerlings size to stock : 40-50 mm TL
Fish fingerlings price : USD 0.15/ pc
Fish stocking density: 5 */sqm = 250/ pond
Therefore, price of fingerlings = US 37.50
Fish feed: Tapioca, banana leaves, fruit peels
and organic kitchen left-overs.
Costs: USD 0.00
Feeding rate from 5 % of estimated body weight
Survivability 90% = 225
Average body weight: 0.5 kg per fish
Period of culture : 8 months.
Harvested weight: 112.5 kg
Market price at US 3.00/kg.
Harvested value = US 337.50
http://bbat-sukabumi.tripod.com/ikan.html
* Rural farmers stock at 1 fish/2 sq.m.

23. Gouramy Culture. Culture period: 8 months
Pond Area 50 sq.m. 5 10 15
Stocking Rate / sq m Low density High density
Pond density 250 500 750
Price of fingerlings @ US 0.15 USD 37.50 USD 75.00 USD 112.50
% Survivability 90 80 70
Number of fish to harvest 225 400 525
Average weight of fish at 0.5 kg/pc 112.5 kg 200.0 kg 262.5 kg
Price of Fish @ USD 3/kg USD 337.50 USD 600.00 USD 787.50
Feeding by leaves & re-cycle wastes 0 0 0
Pellet at FCR 2.5 for USD 0.50 USD 281.25 USD 500.00 USD 656.25
Profits with commercial pellets USD 56.25 USD 100.00 USD 131.25
Production by area by USD/sq m USD 6.75 USD 12.00 USD 15.75
Production by fish quantity/month 28 50 65.5

24. Other Recommended Fish Species for Domestic Aquaculture.
Air-breathers.
Ikan Lele, Keli
Ikan Puyu
Anabas
Clarias sp testudineus
Herbivorous
Lampam Jawa
Ikan Kelah
Puntius gonionotus Tor tambroides
Non-indigeneous species Chinese carps
Kap Cina Cyprinus carpio
Kap Rumput
Ctenopharyngodon idella
Tropical fishes for aquarium hobbyist
Tiger barbs
Angelfish Pearl Gouramy

25. Application of Self-sustainable Domestic
Aquaculture in Home Gardens.

26. Application of Self-sustainable Domestic Aquaculture in a
Urban Projects
AyerMatahari
River Valley Park, Pos Sigar Highlands, Cameron Highlands.
A 980 acres mixed development project.

27. Conclusion
1. Commercial or high density aquaculture is high in costs and risks.
2. Wastes discharge from commercial aquaculture farms are polluting the
sea, mangroves and riverine systems.
3. Domestic aquaculture could be a way to reduce harmful impacts on aquatic
ecosystems from large-scale, high density aquaculture farms waste
discharges.
4. Domestic aquaculture is only practical when it is applicable for functional
purpose.
5. Fish type selection for domestic aquaculture is very important for a successful
application.
6. The use of re-cycle organic wastes includes grey water is possible in domestic
aquaculture.
7. The art of fish farming can only be acquired by practicing.
8. Domestic aquaculture yields are for own consumption and it is non-
commercial.

28. TERIMA KASIH
Ng Kok Hong. AyerMatahari SB.
aquadomest@gmail.com
Ikan kelah from my home pond just right for dinner