AGRIBUSINESS: How fishmeal and oil alternatives can support aquaculture growth.

AGRIBUSINESS: How fishmeal and oil alternatives can support aquaculture growth.As the world increasingly turns to aqua farming to feed its growing population, there's no better time than now to design an aquaculture system that is sustainable and efficient. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, the University of Tasmania and the International Atomic Agency examined the current practice of catching wild fish for forage (to feed farmed fish) and concluded that using novel, non-fishmeal feeds could help boost production while treading lightly on marine ecosystems and reserving more of these small, nutritious fish for human consumption.

HOW TO FORMULATE FISH FEED WITH WATER HYACINTH.

Water hyacinth: how to use it as fish feed. The need to find alternative protein sources to formulate non-traditional fish diets to overcome the high fish meal prices has resulted in many attempts to replace fish meal partially or completely with various plant protein sources.

 Water hyacinth has been discovered as a viable option according to study carried out by Dr. S. A. Vhanalakar and Dr. D. V. Muley, Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India showing the benefits of water hyacinth as fish feed ingredient. 

 Water hyacinth is one of the most highly productive plants filling up a small area within a short time span as is considered the world's worst aquatic weed. It forms dense mats that interfere with navigation, recreation, irrigation and power generation. These mats competitively exclude native submerged and floating-leaved plants. 

 The rising cost and scarcity of fish meal has prompted studies to find alternatives to the fish meal by using locally available and cheaper ingredients of either animal or plant origin. The success of the aquaculture industry depends worldwide on the availability of low cost, high quality feeds to break even. In the past several studies were carried out to look for substitutes for fish meal in the fish feed. 

Fish nutritionists have evaluated alternative sources of plant origin protein in fish diets as partial or total fish meal replacement. Water hyacinth has been found suitable among other options,as it was found to replace the fish meal at various levels of inclusion without any side effects but rather an increase in fish productivity. . 

 The study carried out using the common carp fed for 120 days. : fresh water hyacinth leaves were collected from local water bodies, these were washed thoroughly with water to remove dirt and debris and drained properly before sun drying. 

The dried leaves of water hyacinth were milled , packed in airtight polyethylene bags and kept in the freezer before use. The inclusion of the dried leaves in the feed was at different rates ranging from (0-70%), groundnut cake, rice bran, fish meal, guar gum binder and mineral/vitamin mixture were all added to formulate the feed. 

 Ingredients were mixed until an homogeneous mass was obtained and with the mincer 0.6 mm pellets were prepared, which were immediately sun dried. The dried pellets were broken up by hand into convenient pellet sizes and frozen before feeding the fish. The water hyacinth diet showed the great usefulness as fish feed ingredient and for cost effectiveness. 

The feed with 40% water hyacinth incorporated diet showed best growth performance over all the other inclusion rates, although all the diets containing the water hyacinth leaf powder showed effectiveness as an economic fish feed . 

 Water hyacinth does not have the capacity to replace the traditional fish meal,therefore, it is used as a supplementary fish feed ingredient along with the traditional ingredients; but the incorporation level of traditional ingredients like fish meal, groundnut cake, rice bran etc. was kept at lowest inclusion level. 

 

Water hyacinth can  play an important role in fish feed formulation to overcome high feed prices.

How to compound fish feed .

Fish feed could be natural ,using natural sources such ac insects,maggot,tadpoles,zoo plankton or plankton.Fish could also be fed a compounded ration, this could be home-made or finished feed. A combination of ingredients are used in stipulated amounts to boost growth. A combination of both natural and compounded ration can also be employed to save cost. FEED COMPOUNDING,Using fish meal,soya beans,groundnut cake,premix and binder. The ingredients are added as follows; fish meal...........50% soya beans...............24% groundnut cake............18% premix.................6% cornflour..............2%. The various ingredients are weighed out,grind ed and mixed thoroughly.These ingredients are mixed and held with use of binder(flour),the flour is mixed with water to form a paste,this is then added to the mixture and you continue to mix until a thick paste is formed.The mixture is dried in sun,and kept in air tight containers. The feed could be pelletized/granulated or fed as small lumps that break off when dropped in ponds.This will provide a good start for your fish at 12-28 days. Fish feed could also be made from fish meal,premix and raw egg as binder. The composition of the feed: fish meal ....92% premix ......8% and the raw egg as binder. All ingredients are mixed,the egg is mixed with water to form a paste,this then dried in the sun and kept in air tight containers.They can be presented as granular or fed as small lumps at pond corners. Unconventional feeding method is the use of grind-ed crayfish, which id grounded to fine particles, and mixed with fine chopped cassava flakes(garri).This is mixed with the crayfish to form a paste,this is then put in corners of the pond,to feed the fish.

FISH HEALTH .

Fish should be observed on a regular basis for signs of ill health,stress or any discomfort.This is the main reason why you must master your fish behavior;swimming patterns,feeding and response to stimuli so that any changes will be noticed and addressed. There must be an operational protocol,where the pipe works, pumps and general system are checked for leaks,damage,breaks or blockages . The pond is the controlled environment of the fish,and the health status of the fish is hinged on its stability and balance. Potential problems /deaths in ponds has been traced to biofilters.When nitrogenous wastes accumulate in ponds,they increase ammonia levels in ponds,causing death of microrganism in the biofilters which results in mass death of fish. The water parameters are to be checked at regular intervals as these are indicators of fish health status; dissolved oxygen,temperature,ammonia level,nitrate,nitrite,pH and phosphate are very important. Fish health can be judged good/bad based on observation.When fish are flicking or flashing its an indication of parasitic infestation or high nitrite concentration in water.Fish jumping also indicate parasitic infestation,gill problems or irritating contaminates in water. Rubbing against fish tank/wall is a clear indication of parasitic infestation.Stress is to be suspected when fish are swimming slowly,resting down in the pond and refusal of feed.Mucus covered fish points to stress as well as parasitic infestation Fish gasping for fresh air on water surface,or hanging around water inlet indicate a low level of dissolved oxygen in the pond. Parasitic infection could be by bacteria,fungi or viruses.Parasites could infect or infest the body of fish as in the case of fish lice,which causes severe irritation. When fish is observed with clamped fins,red streaks on skin its indicative of a bacterial infection,while whitish spots on fish giving a cotton-wool appearance is indicative of viral infection,these are usually complicated by secondary bacterial infection. Fish could also show lumps or pox-like lesion as in the case of carp pox,these usually disintegrate leaving ulcers that are also complicated by bacteria.Worms also affect health of fish,tapeworms in fish cause a change in body color resulting in dark-colored fish ,that are weak and swimming with open mouths The anchor worm causes proliferation of muscle. Fish farms must have some materials to facilitate easy management ,ease handling and ensure survival and health of fish.These include nets,water kit,bowl,gloves and indicator paper.