
Daily Feeding Schedule Boosts
On-Farm Catfish ProductionBy Ben Hardin February 25, 2000Catfish growers who feed their fish
each day--rather than every other day--can boost production, according to a
study by Agricultural Research Servicescientists. The researchers increased pond production of catfish 30 percent by
feeding 30 percent more feed--and by offering it on a daily basis. The new daily feeding schedule increased the weight of fingerlings, as a
group, by 70 percent. Fingerling growth, by itself, accounted for the overall
30 percent increases in ponds where young and old fish were raised together and
fed everyday. Weight gains of larger fish were neither helped nor hindered by
feeding frequency. Until now, some catfish farmers have supplied feed to mixed-sizes of catfish
just every other day when water temperature rose above 90 degrees F. The
reason: daily feedings in hot weather can result in ponds having low levels of
oxygen, which are unhealthy for fish. But with the advent of highly efficient
mechanical aeration, water oxygen is no longer a problem. In the 30-week-long study, researchers at Pine Bluff, Ark., stocked nine
ponds at a per-acre rate of 2,000 large fish and 6,000 fingerlings and supplied
as much feed as the fish would eat either daily or every other day. While
fingerlings gained much more by being fed every day, larger fish gained the
same amount in either situation. The larger fish apparently made up for not
having daily meals by snacking on the smaller fingerlings. Some 14 percent
fewer fingerlings survived in ponds supplied with feed every other day. Warm-water food fish such as catfish, striped bass and carp, together with
baitfish, comprise at least a $675 million on-farm industry in Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Production of food fish in other
southeastern states and California is growing rapidly even as imports of fish
products are rising. The domestic aquaculture industry provides a market for
corn, soybeans and other ingredients that go into the manufacture of fish
feeds. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. Scientific contact: Donald W. Freeman, ARS
Aquaculture Systems
Research, Pine Bluff, Ark., phone (870) 543-8128, fax (870) 543-8116,
[email protected]. Story contacts Aquaculture Systems Research U.S. Department of Agriculture | |