Thread: Fish-farming questions and ideas.

Originally Posted by mellow

Originally Posted by muu uan

Autofeeder costs from 70k-150k€ mounted.
Hole system should cost 400-1500k€ depend of size of farm/production
can buy only the filtters or just the parts what needed.
anyway its going to take time before money from investment returns.

How does that translate into Baht?

Auto feeder around 3.000.000-6.000.000baht
unifarm system ready build 19.000.000-72.000.000baht

Akva smart systems are sure most expensive systems in markets
.

Buying all the parts/filters from free markets, do building yourself and
feed fish by hand (thats the best way to do it) should cut costs at least
50%

Originally Posted by mellow

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

^ Which is fine, I guess, until you need to harvest the first wave of fish, which is then labor intensive because netting fish from a huge pond requires a lot of hands, and then having to pump the pond to clean it is even more cost intensive.

Agreed. Also if the labor pool is like around here, they might not even show up for work that day, to do any of that. You would have a drained pond, and you would be the only one there.

Agreed, but on the other hand, I'm sure the system in the links works well in the hands of skill workers. See all the ppl with plans, meters and other measuring devices, I don't think any of them are called Somchai.

Originally Posted by muu uan

Originally Posted by mellow

Originally Posted by muu uan

Autofeeder costs from 70k-150k€ mounted.
Hole system should cost 400-1500k€ depend of size of farm/production
can buy only the filtters or just the parts what needed.
anyway its going to take time before money from investment returns.

How does that translate into Baht?

Auto feeder around 3.000.000-6.000.000baht
unifarm system ready build 19.000.000-72.000.000baht

Akva smart systems are sure most expensive systems in markets
.

Buying all the parts/filters from free markets, do building yourself and
feed fish by hand (thats the best way to do it) should cut costs at least
50%

After reading the costs quoted, I feel much better about the amount of money, its costing my wife to set up her RAS. I suppose I can stop crying now. With the lowest cost auto feeder 3 mil. , she can hire a worker to give food to the fish etc., for 40 years.

Originally Posted by mellow

With the lowest cost auto feeder 3 mil. , she can hire a worker to give food to the fish etc., for 40 years.

That is the best and most effective way to feed by hand, you have
best control at fish eat all the food, "wasted food is wasted money".

In norway with that money can hire one worker for not even one year and
here in sweden maybe jus bit over one year, maybe that is why they sell most in western countries.

^ I'm sure they are excellent systems. The technology involved with these systems and the operating costs would probably kill any profit if there ever is any. Running a couple of pumps, an air device, buying feed is already costly. I doubt many single family farms are snatching them up.

Originally Posted by mellow

^ I'm sure they are excellent systems. The technology involved with these systems and the operating costs would probably kill any profit if there ever is any. Running a couple of pumps, an air device, buying feed is already costly. I doubt many single family farms are snatching them up.

the technology is easily copied and cheap to build by anybody with basic mechanical skills and a bit of ingenuity.
the important thing is to study and understand the technology, and find a cheaper way to do it. (as you suggested: hand feed instead of automatic feed)
if your market is big enough, and the selling price is high enough, it justifies spending the money, and a ready made, proven, megabuck system would save in the long run, the time normally spent on the "learning curve" phase.
otherwise, a bit of improvisation, and attention to basic business principles can get you an hell of a long way.

^ Yes, the technology can be copied with available improvised materials, and there are quite a few forums with Do it yourself sections, which show you that particular persons' construction. These examples help a lot. I myself have not found it to be cheap however. I suppose it's cheap, when comparing it to the 19 million price tag, shown for the least expansive system, constructed by the above company.
Achieving maximum stocking and grow out rates is a lot easier for a scientist with grant money, free manpower with degrees in fishery management, and all the bells and whistles, then more ordinary folks. Keeping it more mechanical, cleaning filter chambers and filtration media, 5-10% daily water changes, maybe a foam fractioner, and flushing out sediment at the bottom of tanks should give you about 60% of their stocking rates.
Probably a big factor to look out for is to not get too greedy, by overstocking and killing everything off, fish and bio filter.

One thing you will always have a problem with is finding or training skilled staff. Even if you get them, there's a very good chance they will leave at short notice. Clever Thais either work for themselves or move from one job to another as it suits them.

Even if you could do everything yourself, it's not legal. Feeding fish is OK, but electric timers, switches etc. is a bit complicated for farm laborers. If you left the place for a weekend away, you could come back to dead fish and no staff.

^ Quite right Smithson. We have lived here 8 yrs. and I can't even count the number of people who have worked here for my wife. Many don't stay after they realize that there is actually work to be done, others have to be shown where the gate is. About 10% work well, but as you said, they find something else they want to do, or just go into retirement after working a few months.

^ After 5 yrs we have quite a hard working team 90% female, but that is in Bkk and they are all supporting family back home. Also, we've given up trying to train them, all they want is simple repetitive work without responsibility or leadership.

Our experience outside Bkk has not been good. I'd be happy to pay someone responsible and hardworking double the going rate, problem is they just don't seem to be available.

^ Besides material and construction cost, that is a very good reason to keep things simple and easily done.

Originally Posted by Dalton

Hi TD members.

I have started this thread in hope of that some of you might consider to try doing some fish-farming, it can be a nice hobby and doing the right things, it might also provide an little extra income.
So if you have any questions or ideas, then please post away

Cheers

Dalts.

We have just started fish farming and yesterday we placed 3000 "Pla Nim" into our 2 Rai "pond". I will look through this thread and read on... Im now a fish farmer after all!

About to live on bassac river and i plan to erect net in the river to farm fish.I have three metre deep water for half the year,if i can find the correct fish should be a goer.
Barra perhaps.

Working for an importer in th UK but retiring to Thailand in December have seriously thought about this.
Main problem is disease and finding a local vet with fish knowledge. Few and afr between in UK. Problem in Thailand is the warm water and parasites grow quickly in the warm.
Have also considered tropical fish farming. Tested water last trip and ideal for breeding many species.
More to follow when I get out there,

Originally Posted by melthorn

Working for an importer in th UK but retiring to Thailand in December have seriously thought about this.
Main problem is disease and finding a local vet with fish knowledge. Few and afr between in UK. Problem in Thailand is the warm water and parasites grow quickly in the warm.
Have also considered tropical fish farming. Tested water last trip and ideal for breeding many species.
More to follow when I get out there,

what kind of fish are you importing, and are you importing from thailand?
disease should not be a problem:
i expect if live fish, that the problems are picked up during the stress of transport or the handling at that time.

Parasites and disease are also a concern of mine. Maybe tsicar who raised catfish here can tell us about his experience in this. Dalton could likewise get in on this, he raised both, catfish and Tilapia, and I know he has encountered disease problems.
Depending on the type of system will also restrict you to certain remedies, so as not to destroy the bacteria in your bio-filter for instance.

^ Read some articles about using salt. Here's one on Formalin:

VM77/VM061: Use of Formalin to Control Fish Parasites

h0w are u dalton back in thailand?

Some good info here.I have a block on the bassac river near phnom penh where I could build a netted pond in the river to grow fish.
However I would only have water about 8 months of the year,in the dry the water disappears and I have a huge sand bank in front of the place.
Could I grow fish successfully in eight months?

Originally Posted by cambtek

Some good info here.I have a block on the bassac river near phnom penh where I could build a netted pond in the river to grow fish.
However I would only have water about 8 months of the year,in the dry the water disappears and I have a huge sand bank in front of the place.
Could I grow fish successfully in eight months?

you could grow out catfish in around 45 days, but not in your nets.
with high quality feed and good fingerlings, you could probably do two batches in that time (3to4 months growout) depending on water temperature.

Hello tsicar, in about 2 weeks we are going to start making spraybars for the biofilters. Wondering what kind of input you may have on this. In our experiments we had some issues with holes getting clogged, also the 2 pumps we will be using will have about 1400 L/M output at a 5M head. Would like to have as much of that water as possible, yet still have a good spray, in all 3 biofilters. Appreciate any constructive discussion on this. What has been your experience on this. Also thinking of rigging up the spraybars, so they can be taken out, replaced by a spare while getting cleaned.

Originally Posted by tsicar

Originally Posted by cambtek

Some good info here.I have a block on the bassac river near phnom penh where I could build a netted pond in the river to grow fish.
However I would only have water about 8 months of the year,in the dry the water disappears and I have a huge sand bank in front of the place.
Could I grow fish successfully in eight months?

you could grow out catfish in around 45 days, but not in your nets.
with high quality feed and good fingerlings, you could probably do two batches in that time (3to4 months growout) depending on water temperature.

Thanks for that,but what do you mean about not in your nets?
I can create a netted pond as large as I want.
How many catfish to the cubic metre?
How much does it cost to feed them.
The beauty of the river is that I have a continual flow of water to get rid of the nutrients.