Fish farming becomes a profitable business if you provide a fish herd with balanced and nutritious nutrition. In order for the fish to quickly gain weight, the feed must correspond to its species and age, and the feeding regimen should correspond to its natural needs.
Types of feed
When breeding fish, proper nutrition is the key to good weight gain and the basis for the success of the fish farming business. Compared with animal husbandry, fish feed per 1 kg of weight gain is spent several times less. The main thing is to choose the right food and provide them with livestock.
Finished feed
Ready-made feeds are the easiest way to feed the fish. They have a complete set of nutrients needed by fish of a certain type and age. They are produced in the form of granules of different sizes.
The benefits of dry food:
- significantly simplify the feeding process;
- completely solve the issue of nutrition, providing the inhabitants of the reservoir with a complete diet;
- created specifically for certain types of fish;
- do not pollute water.
When choosing food, take into account:
- what and how fish eats (predators, herbivores, omnivores);
- age of fish, its need for nutrition;
- size of fish - the size of the granules depends on this.
When choosing ready-made feeds, pay attention to the content of nutrient components. All feeds are divided into two groups:
- Vegetable. These include cereals. Usually used ground wheat, bran, legumes - soy, vetch, lupine, as well as meal and oilcake.
- Animals. These include flour - fish, meat and bone, blood, krill. Fish flour is better than others, it contains amino acids, on which the growth of individuals depends.
In addition to prepared feeds, premixes and enzymes are introduced into the fish diet, which promote the assimilation of food.
Natural fish food
In order for the fish to eat normally, there should be plenty of food in the pond. The basis of fish nutrition is animal and plant organisms.
To get 1 kg of weight gain, zander must eat 3 kg of fry, and perch - 5 kg.
The diet of fish depends on its type. Distinguish between peaceful and predatory fish. While they are small, they eat the same way - they eat larvae and plankton. Growing up, their tastes change. Predators prefer to lean on fry.
The entire feed base of the ponds is divided into two groups:
- Plankton. These are small vegetation and animal organisms. They distinguish between zooplankton - predatory species feed on them, and phytoplankton - fry and fish larvae eat it.
- Benthos. Feed base for peaceful species. These are larvae, insects, mollusks, worms.
Most natural food is in ponds with stagnant water, and well warmed by the sun. Under such conditions, plankton is especially actively propagated.
The share of natural feed in the diet of fish should be 30% no less. Its presence is especially important for young fish. To rationally use live food in feeding pond fish, you need to find out what is the natural base of feed in the pond. For this purpose, hydrobiological studies are periodically carried out in water bodies.
To enrich the ponds with natural food, insects are attracted to it. Also, natural food is bred independently, for example, worms are grown in boxes with chernozem.
The choice of food is influenced by the way fish feed:
- Collection from the surface of the water. Such breeds feed aquatic and terrestrial insects.
- Eat food from the bottom. They are given crustaceans, worms, and insect larvae.
Self cooking
If necessary, purchased food is easy to replace with homemade. Recipe for crucian feed:
- Mix minced meat with ground corn. Add bran and bone meal.
- Pour boiling water and leave for 30 minutes.
- Roll the balls from the resulting mixture.
The food will be even more nutritious if you add chopped nettle or dandelion leaves, dung worms, bloodworms to it.
Another recipe for feed for crucian carp, carp and other cyprinids:
- To obtain 100 g of the mixture, 40 g of oatmeal is steamed.
- Pour for 15-20 minutes with cold water (300 ml).
- Beans, peas and beans (15 g) are grinded in a meat grinder, grassy plants (10 g) - bluegrass, spinach, and dandelion. Add crushed eggshells, bones, calcined in the oven (5 g), semolina (10 g), chalk (2 g), dried bloodworm (10 g), boiled potatoes (5 g), 1 undevita dragee and gelatin (0.4 g).
- The mixture passed through the meat grinder is stored in plastic bags for no longer than a week.
How to choose the right food?
You can’t feed the fish herd with the first food you come across. Industrial feeds are made taking into account the age of the fish - in table 1.
Table 1
Age | What to feed? |
Fry | Starting feed from krill flour with glucan (immunostimulant). |
Young | Transitional feed based on fishmeal, with fish oil and gluten. |
Adult fish | Mixtures of fishmeal with the addition of vitamins. |
The composition of the feed for carp and salmon fish is also different. Combined feed for carps contains grain and grain waste.
When choosing food, they also take into account:
- Type of fish. The composition of the feed for cyprinids and salmon fish is significantly different. Combined feed for carps contains grain and grain waste.
- Release form. There are granules and extruded forms. In the first, a binder is used, in the second, a denatured protein. Extruded feed crumbles less and does not pollute water. Swells 6 times slower than granular.
- The manufacturer. When choosing a feed supplier, you should consider your reputation as well as value for money.
Feed manufacturers offer many versions and release forms. How to figure out what kind of food fish need? Table 2 shows the types of feed and what kind of fish they are suitable for.
table 2
Type of feed | Who are they suitable for? | Features |
Starting | fry | Contain a lot of nutrients and proteins. |
Production | adult fish | Well absorbed. Provide high weight gain and feed savings. |
For manufacturers | producers before spawning | Provide high-quality formation of reproductive products. Allow you to get high-quality fish seed. |
With pigment | for salmon breeds | They have many karatinoids, which give the fish meat a beautiful orange color. |
Feeding rules and conditions
If the fish lacks natural forage for normal growth, they are fed artificial feed. For each case, determine the volume, types and mode of feeding. A lot of factors affect the diet, including the chemical composition of water and the degree of its pollution.
The following factors affect the feeding of fish:
- Season. In summer, fish are given more food than in cold weather. Many species do not eat at all in the winter, hibernating.
- Type and age. Young fish requires more food.
- Accommodation Fish living in ponds and in open ponds / cages are fed differently.
- Temperature. Fish are usually fed 2 times a day - up to 10 hours and at 14 hours. In the summer, in July-August, when there is a lot of natural food, fish is fed a couple of hours after sunrise. In autumn, fish are fed once a day - at 10-12 hours. Feeding rates are gradually reduced, focusing on the water temperature. So, for example, carps stop feeding when the water has cooled to 10 degrees.
- Eatability. To determine if there is enough food for individuals, pay attention to the speed of eating. The fish eats a single portion of the feed in 2-3 hours. If the feed disappears quickly, the rate should be increased. If the food is not eaten for more than 3 hours, the norms are reduced.
Feeding place
The feeding mode is affected by the habitat / fish content. It can be a private pond, natural or artificial pond. If the pond is large, then the feeding place is designated - they put a pole or a floating buoy.
They feed the fish at the same time, so that a conditioned reflex forms in the fish - at the place and time of eating - this prevents the food from sagging and erosion. Feed the fish in the coastal area. The optimal depth is 60-80 cm.
Private ponds
If fish are grown in a natural reservoir, the requirements for feed are not as stringent as when growing livestock in artificial ponds. In natural ponds there is a diverse plankton, which is supplemented with granules or dough-like compound feed.
Granular feeds and briquettes are preferred - these types of feeds are characterized by good moisture resistance. Dough-like food is inferior to granular in this moment - after an hour, it loses 50% of its nutritional value.
When growing fish in cages and pools, feeding is 100% artificial. The selection of feed and the calculation of norms should be taken especially seriously - the efficiency of the fish-farming business depends on correctly selected feeds.
In the country
Fish bred in small country ponds should be fed regularly. There is no food supply here or it is very scarce. For the fish to grow, gain weight and multiply, it needs artificial food.
Feed is dosed. If you give more food than required, the fish will not eat it, and the water in the pond will become contaminated. Dirty water will cause oxygen deprivation among the inhabitants of the pond, their immunity will decrease, they will begin to hurt. It is not recommended to sprinkle food on the surface of the pond; special feeders are provided for feeding.
What feed the fish at country ponds can be seen in the video below:
What kind of fish can be raised in a country house or farm is described in the next article.
Feeder
Fish feeders are simple designs that can be purchased in specialized stores or made independently. Feeders are:
- lifting;
- motionless;
- self-floating;
- automatic.
The simplest feeder is a float on which containers for feed are fixed. To make it, you will need a plastic canister, cut in half, or a wooden box.
A wooden block is attached to the plastic container to move the feeder along the pond. It is recommended to provide 2 sections in the feeder - for different feeds. The design is immersed in water. An ordinary brick will do for a load. To feed the sink lowered to different depths, use loads of different weights. The structure is fixed on the shore - so that, if necessary, quickly raise and put food into it.
Automatic feeders are different - with and without electric drive. In designs without an electric drive, feed is fed by various mechanical methods. For example, by touching the pendulum - the fish, swimming, move it, and the feed is automatically fed to the feeder. There are models in which servings are added after the clock-like mechanism is activated.
How does the feeding regimen depend on the season?
Fish belong to cold-blooded animals, therefore their metabolism depends on the ambient temperature. With an increase in temperature, the metabolism accelerates, with a decrease it slows down.
Seasonal feeding rules for fish:
- Feed pond fish begin at a water temperature of 8-10 ° C.
- The feeding season in the pond begins in spring and ends before winter.
- In summer, feeding is limited if the water temperature reaches 26-30 ° C. In heated water, oxygen is poorly soluble, the fish have difficulty breathing. Food during this period is harmful.
In winter, the fish falls asleep in whole or in part. The body receives food from accumulated reserves. Table 3 shows the distribution of feed by month (for a temperate climate).
Table 3
Month | % of total feed |
May | 5-10 |
June | 20-25 |
July | 20-35 |
August | 25-30 |
September | 5-10 |
Feeding according to the type of fish
Different breeds of fish have different nutrient requirements. In order to make fish growing profitable, not only its age and weight are taken into account, but also the type:
- Soma. In catfish, by the time they are fed with artificial feed, a digestive system is formed that can digest a variety of foods. Catfish are not so demanding on the composition of the feed. Usually use mixtures of SB-1 and SB-3, flavored with calcium. Fries receive food 8 times a day. Then - 4 times. The portion depends on temperature.
- Salmon. The basis of nutrition is marine and freshwater fish, meat wastes, skimmed milk powder, meat and bone, fish, and krill flour. The components are mixed on their own or bought granular feed for salmon fish.
- Acne. It needs feed with a high protein content - the growth rate depends on them. Young animals receive food 10 times a day.
- Sturgeon. These fish are given a high fat diet. The older the individual, the less often feeding. Fry eat 10-12 times a day, adult fish - 4-8 times. A granular and pasty food is suitable. The speed of weight gain and the quality of meat depend on their balance in minerals and vitamins. More information on sturgeon breeding can be found here.
- Cyprinids. The daily rate depends on the weight of the fish and temperature. For fish weighing up to 0.5 kg, it is 2.8% of the weight. Juveniles and two-year-olds are fed with granulated feed 2 times a day. Young growth - first hourly, then less often. The number of feedings is reduced as the water cools. About carp breeding more is written here.
An experienced fish farmer in his video tells in detail about feeding carp in a pond:
Fish cannot be fed bread - it contains sugar and yeast that the fish do not need. In addition, baked goods quickly soak and pollute the water.
How to increase the feed base of the pond?
To increase the food supply of the pond, they resort to insects. To do this, use fluorescent lamps - 30 cm above the water. If it is warm outside, not lower than 15 ° C, most of the insects appear at 22-23 hours. The lamps turn on for several hours. The pond lighting rate is 1 lamp per 1 ha. Under such conditions, per 1 square. m manages to attract 100 g of insects.
To increase fish productivity:
- Loose bottom sediments using a special rake. This contributes to the development of plankton.
- If the fish is grown without wintering, humus is lowered to the bottom of the pond: 2-3 tons per 1 ha.
The right choice of food and adherence to the feeding regime are the basis for successful fish farming. The task of the fish farmer is to take into account all the factors affecting the diet and to provide the fish herd with food corresponding to its needs.
Posted by
12
Russia. City Novosibirsk
Publications: 276 Comments: 1