Factos to Consider Before Starting Fish Farming Business

Hi friends, so you are going to consider fish farming business in Nigeria or any other part of the world?

That’s awesome.

Fish Business is yet one of the most lucrative businesses around the world, fish has low cholesterol fat, and are more nutritious than beef and other red meat consumed all over the world today.

Formerly, way back in the day, fish are always hunted in deep waters alone and with the ever growing demand for food especially animal protein (which fish is essentially a major one), getting fishes in rivers, sea and ocean wouldn’t just be able to handle what is required.

Thankfully, the technology system through scientific research came on the scene and now we can easily cultivate (farm artificially in enclosure) fishes in various ponds, restricted movement and under the influence of man’s monitoring like, feeding and changing of water and harvesting, separation and so are done at will by the fish farmer, the major advantage of this, is that we can now develop a good number of fishes per year.

We don’t have to delay, even with the growing demand for fishes, with more and more young men coming into the agricultural industry, and embracing fish farming, we are soon too get to the peak of meeting up with the ever growing demand for animal protein in our nation and the world at large.

But then, are you planning on Venturing into Fish Farming Business?

That’s an awesome idea, but here are few points you really must know.

Factors to put in place before starting a Fish Farm;

1. Situate your Farm well : This is very important, it as been said that really, fish farming don’t have hazard effects on the society like piggery and poultry does, however from my years of experience, you don’t situate a fish farm in a noisy or residential area, because even fishes as a livestock requires a cool and silent area for them to breed well and grow well, a little shock or noise can actually make the whole fishes inside the pond to die and float on the water, so this as little as it seems, must be taken into consideration with all seriousness.
2. Finance: Fish Farming is not one of the businesses you do with little money in the beginning, if you fail to feed your fishes well, you will really regret venturing into fish farming in the first place. So you must make provisions for financial flow to keep your fish business running smooth even to the point of earning good profits. In fishery, the major aspect of spending is always “ Feeding” fish eats a lot and their feeds are seemingly quite expensive, you do well to save yourself from excessive spending when you have learn how to manufacture their feeds by yourself, this will go a long way to help you save money and still get the best out of your fishing endeavors.  Major important works like getting land, plumbing set ups, digging ponds, pumping machine, feed manufacturing machine and so on are major cost draining aspect of fish farming business, a farmer must put into consideration to make success a part of the business.
3. The Required Knowledge : Fish business is one of the most lucrative business you can even venture into, yet it is very versatile and very risky, because you are dealing with livestocks, there are tendency that any mismanagement can sabotage your business and kill all the fishes within a short time.  It will be vulnerable for any lay man without a proper fore knowing about fish business to venture into that line, knowledge bankruptcy can kill your business faster than you can ever imagine, as a matter of fact, i suggest people should go for adequate training before venturing into any form of agricultural businesses.
4. What Fish Do you want to Cultivate? The choice of fish you are cultivating is very important, for instance; in Nigeria today, two most cultivated fishes are Tilapia and Catfish; so you have to make your choice before starting as to which fish you are going to cultivate, but i really do recommend CATFISH for beginners, it is easy, there is a lot of market for it, and it is less versatile compared to Tilapia.
5. Small or Large Scale? How do you want to start your fish farm? Even, when you have the funds but you don’t have the experience and knowledge, you are still not qualify to start big, you must learn how to be conserve, patient to really know how fish farming business, and all that it entails before you start a commercial large scale fish farm, so for beginners i recommend you start small and learn alongside.
6. Marketing : There is a lot more to marketing in fish farming; but the good news for any thing fish and fish products, there is a good market in Nigeria, however, you must understand the dynamics of marketing in fish business, for instance; in our farm, we took a bold step to process our fish from fresh to dried fish and sell, and it has been one of the best decision so far, we made more sales, we are able to transport to farther distance away from here, and we sold almost at a double price of the fresh fish and made good profits in a short while, so even though there is a ready market for fish business, you have to also understand the dynamics of marketing that will work best for your farm.
7. What kind of Pond? This is another important question you must ask and find answers to, there are majorly three kinds of fish pond that are found and common around us, the earthen-natural pond, the concrete-built pond and the tarpaulin pond, so which one of them are you going to use? This question must be sorted before you start, people majorly use tarpaulin pond at locations like the back of the house fish farm, concrete comes into place when you have maybe a plot to 5-plots, but when you are located in a good environment, with a good aerated soil, good watered soil, digging a natural pond is the best, my own experience in fish business as proven to me that, Fishes in Natural ponds does better in terms of growth and size, because they still enjoy the natural fish habitat that is available at the sea and ocean level.