Fish Farming

Ruhi Fish:

Ruhi is a tasty fish. It is a fish of river. But it is also suitable for ponds also.

Physical Characteristic: Its head is comparatively small to body. Upper side portion is more convex than lower side. Lips are thick and fold and have 2 small trunks in front of lip.

Food and Eating habits: Ruhi fish eat food from mid level water. It is carnivorous. It eats animal particles when carp then plant particles, animal particles and rotten organic particles.

Maturity and Reproduction: Ruhi fish grow length up to 1 meter. It becomes maturity within 3 years. In a suitable climate it laid eggs in open water within May to August. We can reproduce eggs artificially in hatchery.

Katala Fish:

It is a tasty and rapidly growing fish. It is a fresh water fish. It is suitable for ponds though it is a fish of river.

Physical Characteristic: Its head is comparatively large to body. Face is wide and bent to upward. Upper side portion of body is more convex than lower side. Upper lip is thin and lower lip is thick. The upper part of the body is dark gray and sides are silvery. Fins are blackish.

Food and Eating habits: Katala fish eat food from upper level water. It is carnivorous. It eats plant particles and animal particles.

Maturity and Reproduction: Katala fish become 1 meter length in maturity. It becomes sexual maturity within 3 – 5 years. A female Katala fish conceive 15,00,000 – 30,00,000  of eggs. In a suitable climate it laid eggs in open water within June to August. We can reproduce eggs artificially in hatchery.

Mrigela Fish:

It is a fresh water and very tasty fish. It is a fish of river. It can farm in ponds also. It is a rapidly growing fish.

Physical Characteristic: Its body is long. Its lower body portion is about straight. Upper lip is curve towards bellow and has two small trunks in front of it. The upper part of the body is gray and both sides and lower part are silvery.

Food and Eating habits: Mrigel fish eat food from bottom level of the pond. It is carnivorous. It eats animal particles, little animals and rotten organic materials from clay and bottom level.

Maturity and Reproduction: Mrigel fish become 1 meter length and 8 – 9 kg weigh in maturity. It earns sexual maturity in second year. A female Mrigel fish conceive 1,00,000 – 5,00,000  of eggs. In a suitable climate it laid eggs in open water within May to August. We can reproduce eggs artificially in hatchery.

Silver Carp Fish:

It is absolutely fresh water fish. It can farm in ponds also. It is a rapidly growing fish. It is a tasty fish. It is normally born in China and Russia. But its cultivation is worldwide now a day.

Physical Characteristic: Its body is covered with small size scales. Belly side is more convex than back side. Tail is narrow but middle body is wide. Its body is long. Its backside is slightly brown.

Food and Eating habits: Silver fish takes food from upper level of the pond. It normally takes small and rotten plants.

Maturity and Reproduction: Silver fish become 1 meter length and 8 – 9 kg weigh in maturity. It earns sexual maturity in second year. We can reproduce carp artificially in hatchery.

Grass Carp Fish:

It can farm in ponds. It is a rapidly growing fish. It is normally born in China and Russia. But its cultivation is worldwide now a day.

Physical Characteristic: Its body is long. Its lower body portion is about straight. Upper lip is curve towards bellow. Back side fin is small. The upper part of the body is slightly green. Head is comparatively small to body.

Food and Eating habits: Silver Carp fish eat food from all level of the pond. It is herbivorous. It eats aquatic weeds and green grass.

Reproduction: It doesn’t leave eggs in closed water. In a suitable climate it laid eggs in open water like river. We can reproduce eggs artificially in hatchery.

Mirror Carp:

It looks beautiful. It is found in temperate region of Asia.

Physical Characteristics: Its body is skate. Head is comparatively small to body. Its body is covered with reddish scales. It has a little number of rows scales. Back side is slightly brown and belly side is golden. Scales are big.

Food and Eating habits: It takes food from bottom level of the pond. It is carnivorous. It eats animal particles, little insects and rotten organic materials from clay and bottom level.

Reproduction: It can laid eggs in ponds. It leaves eggs in summer or rainy seasons and winter seasons two times in a year.

Pond Preparation:

Fish farming is one kind of cultivation. We have to prepare ponds before leaving carp in the ponds. In order to prepare ponds we should follow next steps.

1.  Pond reformation,

2.  Cleaning Weeds,

3.  Remove huge and unexpected fishes,

4.  Use of lime,

5.  Use of fertilizers and

6.  Experimentation of natural food in the ponds.

Ponds Reformation: It is the first step of ponds reformation.

Clay Removal: If there stay additional clay we have to remove it as it causes harmful gasses, bacteria and insects. In order to upgrade the pond’s environments we should remove extra clay (more than 20 – 25 cm deep). We can do it by pumping water out of the pond.

Recovering Boundaries: If the boundaries are unprotected we should repair it immediately. Otherwise it may over flood in the rainy season. Fishes in the ponds can leave the ponds and huge fishes can enter into the ponds that causes harm our farm. We also plant grass all over the side boundaries to make it firm.

Weed Cleaning: Weed consume foods from ponds water that destroy natural foods and fertilizers. We can clean weeds as follows-

1. Physical labor: We can clean floating weeds by physical labor easily.

2. Biological Methods: If we keep a few numbers of herbivorous fishes such as Grass Carp, Rajputi etc. they eat floating and drowned weeds as well. After leaving carp in the ponds we can remove it easily in this way. If we reserve this kinds of fish a few number in a pond then the pond is clean as well.

3. Applying Chemicals: Extra green moss is harmful for ponds. It lacks oxygen in pond water. As a result growth of fishes will decrease or may die. We can apply 35 gm copper sulfate per hundreds of pond area with 1 meter height for solving this problem.

Huge and unexpected fishes Removal:

Huge fishes eat carp and fish food. As a result growth of fishes decreases. We can remove it as follows-

1.  Drying Pond: By drying ponds all kinds of fishes can caught easily. Huge fishes and harmful insects can easily enter into clay. By keeping pond bottom dry for a few days we can destroy them and poisonous gasses easily. As a result productivity of fish increases.

2.  Pulling Net: By pulling thick net again and again we can collect them easily. We should tie weighted concrete materials with lower border of net and pull it slowly.

3.  Applying Chemicals: When drying pond is impossible then we can use chemicals like Rotenon and Fostonic for destroying all kind of fishes and germs

Elements	Gm/hundreds of land/meter
Rotenon	30 -35 gm
Fostonic	3 gm (1 tab)

Mix Rotenon or Fostonic with pond water and pull net 2/3 times then fish will die. We should collect fishes with net immediately otherwise fish will rotten.

Use of Lime: Lime purifies water. Use of lime in the pond is essential. It supplies calcium for fishes, reduce acidity and increase alkalinity. As a result increases fertility of soil and water. It destroys harmful germs and insects. Use of lime depends on soil P.H.

Soil P.H.	Lime (kg/hundreds)
0.0 – 3.9	10
4.0 – 4.5	5
4.6 – 5.5	3
5.6 – 6.5	2
6.6 – 7.5	1

We should not through dry lime on water. At first we mix it with water in a plastic or mud pots. Then we can through on water after cooling lime solution.

Fertilizer:

Fish production depends on growing small size green plants such as Fytoplanton. And Fytoplanton production depends on nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Some times these elements are not sufficient in pond water. So we have to supply fertilizer in the ponds. These fertilizers are of two kinds-

1.Organic Fertilizer: We can get this fertilizers from cow dung, poultry stool, compost and green fertilizers.

2.Chemical Fertilizer: We generally use UREA, TSP, and MP etc. as fertilizer.

Experiment of Natural Food in Water:

The color of water with sufficient natural foods is green or brawn. After applying fertilizers for 5 – 7 days we have to collect pond water in a transparent glass. If we can see green or brawn particles in that water then it is suitable for leaving carp.