Thread: Our Little Fish Farm Project.

I have been discussing this fish farm project for some time now, and being unable to sleep, I decided to tackle picture posting, to start this thread. The pictures are pretty much up to date, of where we are with the project now.

great thread
great questions Hampster.
I am interested as well

wonder where dalton is, he will have lots of sound advice, didnt he used to have a fish farm?

Fish being pretty cheap in the market here, you will need huge quantities weekly to make it profitable...

Anyway your setup looks very good, wishing you plenty of success !

Here are a couple of sites with very good info for those interested in Tilapia farming.

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/238/columnaris-in -tilapia

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/tilapia/Columnaris.php

https://teakdoor.com/farming-and-gard...and-ideas.html

https://teakdoor.com/farming-and-gard...fish-farm.html

there ya go, probably some good info there

I'm very interested in this also:

Originally Posted by Hamster

Looks pretty sharpish. Would you mind sharing what your setup costs were, what your operating costs are, and what your projected monthly income is?

Some family members have a bright idea to start a frog farm. Just curious is all. I'm years (decades?) off from moving out of BKK, but....

Great start mellow, looks very professional.

Hamster; you should tell the family that there are no prince coming out the frogs when they kiss them.....maybe they will go for fish too then.

Originally Posted by Hamster

Looks pretty sharpish. Would you mind sharing what your setup costs were, what your operating costs are, and what your projected monthly income is?

Some family members have a bright idea to start a frog farm. Just curious is all. I'm years (decades?) off from moving out of BKK, but....

A frog farm does not require this type of set-up, would be much cheaper. We only started it up a few times, so I really don't know about the operating cost, still waiting on the electrician to make sure all is hooked up correctly , and back up generators. The electrical work looks good, but I want to make sure. Projected monthly income is an unknown factor. Will be selling juvenile fish mostly, what we don't sell, will get put into our 2 ponds to grow out, after reaching 200 grams. I know what it cost us to built, but it would not be an accurate figure. We made mistakes doing this, it wasn't easy. Luckily, we constructed 2 experimental fish farms, which taught us a lot. There's a thread on frog farms on that dreaded other forum.

Originally Posted by sunsetter

wonder where dalton is, he will have lots of sound advice, didnt he used to have a fish farm?

Dalton's fish farm is not far from us, I went there a few times to look around and ask questions. Unfortunately he left for an overseas job, before we started construction on our. Would have been nice to be able to ask questions about construction. I do know he always had a hard time getting juvenile fish though. There is a government fish farm very close to us, but they had a hard time providing fingerlins, last few times that we wanted some.

Originally Posted by forreachingme

Fish being pretty cheap in the market here, you will need huge quantities weekly to make it profitable...

Anyway your setup looks very good, wishing you plenty of success !

Not expecting to get rich off it, but once people see that my wife has a good product, she should be able to make herself a decent income. There will be a learning curve, and all plans always morph. Thank you for your good wishes.

Fry or fingerlings should always be ordered in advance, Nam Sai Farms,and Fisheries Dept at Udon Thani and Sakhon Nakhon have all seen us right.

The latter two also have frog stocks and can show you how to construct housing and give advise on rearing.

I Have spent a few hours reading up on past threads on the forum re fish farming especially on the subject of hi-density systems such as Mellow is building.
According to those threads quite a few folk were either already involved or intended to be involved in this form of fish farming especially using Tilapia (Pla Nin)
I would be interested to know how many are actually involved successfully at this time.

These type of set-ups are usually restricted to countries with temperate climates where there needs to be some control over the water temperatures needed to sustain decent growth rates. Of course these countries command far greater prices for the commodity than is available locally and so the large capitol outlay and the ongoing costs of production can more easily be met.

I have expressed my skepticism regarding the venture to Mellow before but hope that he proves me wrong, meanwhile I will continue to give him any support based on my experience that I possibly can.

My 50 odd years in the fishing industry has taught me that Murphy,s Law applies to fish farming industry also.

We have operated a moderately successful greenwater Tilapia farm in Isaan for 6 years and have had many painful trials and tribulations along the way,just when you think you have a handle on things it turns and kicks you in the a$rse.

I would council those interested in growing a few fish and have land and suitable water available to start off cheaply with a small tractor formed pond and enjoy the experience as you advance.

Originally Posted by ozzydom

I Have spent a few hours reading up on past threads on the forum re fish farming especially on the subject of hi-density systems such as Mellow is building.
According to those threads quite a few folk were either already involved or intended to be involved in this form of fish farming especially using Tilapia (Pla Nin)
I would be interested to know how many are actually involved successfully at this time.

These type of set-ups are usually restricted to countries with temperate climates where there needs to be some control over the water temperatures needed to sustain decent growth rates. Of course these countries command far greater prices for the commodity than is available locally and so the large capitol outlay and the ongoing costs of production can more easily be met.

I have expressed my skepticism regarding the venture to Mellow before but hope that he proves me wrong, meanwhile I will continue to give him any support based on my experience that I possibly can.

My 50 odd years in the fishing industry has taught me that Murphy,s Law applies to fish farming industry also.

We have operated a moderately successful greenwater Tilapia farm in Isaan for 6 years and have had many painful trials and tribulations along the way,just when you think you have a handle on things it turns and kicks you in the a$rse.

I would council those interested in growing a few fish and have land and suitable water available to start off cheaply with a small tractor formed pond and enjoy the experience as you advance.

You are quite correct in your advice. It is expensive, but we wanted a system that can be handled by one or 2 people. Since you live in Isaan also, you are probably aware of the lack of reliability of the workers here. A green water(pond) system can be labor intensive, especially while harvesting. While this is compact,and easily harvested. Of course on my part it is only an idea, while you have vast experience.
Thank you for the medication link, and your support

I'm in the province next door to you - an Ozzie guy is doing the same thing at the minute but has very 'healthy' family ties ...... a Dutch guy did the same a few years back, pee'd off the neighbours doing the same thing .... he got shot (died).

Be wary.

Hello tsicar: Don't know about dalton's personal agenda, nor his operating costs. As far as his setup goes, I didn't like his mechanical filtration system, because there was no way to drain it and clean it efficiently. Nor did it have a by-pass around the filters, if it would of had such drains. The whole system would of needed to be shut down in order to do so, and the filter tanks drained, and cleaned using a sump pump and labor. Each filter tank in our system has a stand pipe, which can be pulled out. The water drained from the system completely, rinsed, and re-filled, while the system keep running using the by-pass ( will take photos of this today). Also the bio-filters have bottom drain valves, dalton's did not, although he did install them later.
We use 2 water pumps, each being 1Kw or 0.75 KW( have to look), and a blower which will be used for 2 systems when all set up.
The fish food is the greatest expense, especially once the fish reach past the 200 gram stage, and that's the reason why we want to sell them at that point.
I know you don't like the upstand pipes. In each of these tanks there are two, one for water recirculating( has skimmer like cup in photo), the other is used to drain out the bottom of the tank and flush any waste dirrectly out of the system.

Mellow, I have crunched a few numbers based on the info you have provided and my own experience,I would not bet my left nut on the accuracy as I am a farmer not a maths expert but they should be in the ball park.
Based on your figure of 44amps per hour useage your power cost is going to run you to about 15,000 baht /month.

Your fish food cost is harder to calculate because Pla Nin have different food requirements (size/ protein %) at different stages of development.
Fry at say 1 gram require starter powder of about 50% protein at a rate of up to 30% of body weight per day and should be fed in small portions about 8 times per day.
Good starter powder is hard to come by ,Nam Sai Farm makes their own so is probably the best bet.

At 5-20 gram they should be fed at 5 % bodyweight per day ,spread over 3 feeds of 5 hour intervals. At this stage they should be on very small pellets of 45 % protein.

At 20-100 gram 4 % of b/w should suffice at about 30-35% protein and over 100 g should be about the same.

It is hard to calculate actual costs because Pla Nin go through growth bursts , ie.
they grow like weeds from 1-20 grams then slow a bit to 100 gram and really slow up by comparison to 200gram.
In a system such as yours ,32% protein should be about as low as you should go.

So ,at 200 gram b/w x 5000 fish (50 tanks [at]100) = 1000kg liveweight x 4% is approx 40kg per day which ,depending on your purchase price is getting up to 1000 baht per day.

A couple of points to remember is that Tilapia have very small stomachs in comparison to most other fishes and excess intake will pass directly to the intestines instead of the stomach and so be wasted. This is why regular smaller feedings is important. And smaller pellet size is better than bigger.

Lots of time should be spent observing your fish at feeding time to learn when they are satiated, as over feeding is a waste (and places extra burden on your system) underfeeding will result in lower growth rates.

I have serious doubts about your most recent idea of selling mainly 200 gram fish for growing on, this market is limited to the period of the mango rains ,April /May
when the local earth ponds start to fill, some farmers put a few in then to grow on till Xmas when they start to dry up again.
Your idea of tossing them into your 2 ponds at 200grams to grow on has problems as you are going to have to hand catch (cast net ) for the market.
This is problematical as they quickly get net shy and are very difficult to catch.
Out the window goes your low labor input.
As well you will in all likelihood end up with mixed size and age groups in the one pond because it may take up to 4 months to get the fish from 200gram to market size.

Ponds should be pumped out and dried and limed after each cycle, with mixed size fish this is nigh impossible.
I try to only net every third day and keep about 3 days market quantity in floating 1inch mesh holding nets (4m x 4m x1m deep)from which we just dip net our requirements and orders.
When the fish start to get thin on the ground we start to pump the ponds down and over 3or 4 days we catch the remaining fish and place in holding nets in an adjacent pond so that we can start "curing" the empty pond ,drying out takes up to 3 weeks in good weather then we refill ,fertilize and get our water up to par and restock with fingerling size which we have grown on in floating hapa,s.

In summary ,I believe that your overheads are going to be to high ,but I think your original idea of growing the fish on in situ to market size is your best bet if you insist on going with Tilapia.

I really think as Tsicar says,your system is far more suited to wholesale catfish because of the much higher carrying capacity and shorter turnover with cats.