How To Start Fish Farming Business In Nigeria

About 90% of citizens in Nigeria consume Sea foods making it one of the most lucrative business in the agricultural sector. Among all the fish demand in Nigeria, catfish is the most demanded.

A times people ask questions like

•How do I start a Fish farming business?

•How to start fish farming in Nigeria?

•What is fish farming ?

•Is fish farming a lucrative business ?

•What do I need to start fish farming in Nigeria

One can start the business on a small scale before venturing into a larger scale.

This article will help focus more on catfish farming because of its high demand and it’s lucrativeness in terms of income. The following factors to consider before you ventures into the fish farming business in Nigeria;

1. Fish specie

There are numerous species of catfish known and not all o them are suitable for the weather and climate in Nigeria.

The following species of catfish are suitable for commercial farming in Nigeria climate and they include:

• Clarias specie

• Heterobranchus Specie

• Heteroclarias

• Tilapia

• Common carp

2.Farming Method

Since most catfish species are cannibals, the farming method employed is very important so as to minimize loss to the barest minimum and maximize profits. There are divers methods to employ, some include concrete tank method and fingerling outdoor system. method.

In the case of fingerling outdoor system. method you have to prevent predatory insects by covering the tanks with mosquito nets.

You can also employ poly culture of catfish with tilapia in the same tank this helps ensure proper use of supplementary feeds and higher production. In this case, you stock the tilapia first and stock the catfish a couple of weeks later.

3.Feeding.

Feeding is highly important for a healthy fish and also for much production. Supplementary feeds can be used which ensures sufficient availability of amino acids like arginine, methionine, lysine, and crude protein in their meal. Some low cost conventional or unconventional animal byproducts and plant residues like groundnut cake, soybean meat etc can be used in the fish feed. Most fish farmers are using floating pellet feed this type of feed ensures all necessary nutrients for fish and help increase growth rate and production.

4.Breeding

Artificial breeding through hormonal induction is normally used for catfish. After breeding, special care is given to the fry during the first week, during this tune the frys are fed the larvae zooplankton. Due to the problem of cannibalism amongst catfish, they are sorted and selected according to different age and size and kept separate from each other.

Fishing farming is a great business in Nigeria because it is a great source of nutrient and food.

The federal government in Nigeria have to create more facilities for spreading fish farming business through out Nigeria.