The secret for a Successful Fish Feed Formulation for Profitable Fish Farming Business (Part 2)

For a successful fish feed formulation, fish farmer(s) must be acquainted with the Essential nutrients required by fish, which include:

1. Protein and amino acid – for body building, growth maintenance and reproduction. They are present in feedstuff/ingredient that containing 20% crude protein or more.  They are made either of plant or animal materials. Protein of animal origin are of higher quality than those of plant origin. Examples of animal protein sources are fish meal, blood meal, etc. while some examples of plant protein source are Soybean meal, groundnut cake, cotton seed cake etc.
2. Carbohydrates – for needed energy in body activities. They are present in feedstuff/ingredient that containing less than 20% crude protein. They are mostly of plant origin. Examples are guinea corn, cassava, wheat offal, rice bran, maize etc.
3. Fats and fatty acids – for energy and normal body functioning. Lipid also function as sparing nutrient for protein synthesis.
4. Vitamins and minerals – for growth maintenance and reproduction.

While non-nutritive dietary components include toxins, fiber, pigment, feed additive.

Toxin: are anti-nutritional chemical substances/ compound which occur naturally in feed ingredient or contaminants on the feedstuffs (mycotoxins – which develop in feed ingredient as a result of mold infestation) , these anti-nutritional substance can be harmful to fish.  They prevent easy digestion of protein in the feed.  The best way to destroy anti-nutritional factors is to heat treat the feedstuffs.  Heat destroys such factors e.g. trypsin inhibitors in raw soybean or groundnut,  gossypol in cottonseed, erucic acid in rapeseed ( canola) etc. but note that overheating soybean meal can reduce the availability of some amino acids, such as lysine, due to formation of lysine-carbohydrate complexes.

Fiber: is a nonnutritive component of catfish diet(s).

Pigment: is a nonnutritive component of catfish diet(s) but a limited amount of pigmentation can occur in catfish flesh because of the consumption of certain oxygenated carotenoids (xanthophylls).

Feed additive: additive to catfish feeds are used to improve the quality and performance of the feed, these include: pellet binders, antioxidants and antibiotics.

Note that after the desired % crude protein content have been chosen through the feed formulation, the feed can be prepared/compounded through a process of milling, mixing and pelleting.

Note: Single feed ingredients can be fed to fish to supplement available natural food in a pond/tank but combining ingredients make better quality supplemental feed for better and rapid fish growth.  Fish would grow well when fed on a feed containing the % crude protein started in paragraph three (3) above, of which 7 to 10% of the protein should be from animal sources.  When natural food is abundant and fish are stocked at low densities, 20 to 25% crude protein content is suitable while 30% or more crude protein content is more suitable for commercial operations where fish are stocked at higher densities.

Also note that they are factors that can influence fish nutrition especially fish culture in captivity: For instance, biological variations (both fish & nutrient sources), bioavailability and stability of nutrients in feed ingredients, interactions among the nutrients and non-nutritive factors, stress, water quality, infectious diseases, non-infectious disease, toxin etc.

In conclusion, having all this information at your finger-tip, you will be able to formulate a standard good quality diet/feed for a fast growth and healthy fish for a profitable business

Nicholas Izekor is an Aquaculture Trainer at The Ark Shore Konsults (T.A.S.K.). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries Management from the University of Benin, Nigeria.