Hi iyeap, can visit your place? have a friend interested in taliapia. Was on the phone with him last night, says want to start a fish farm. Thanks.

Hello Sir(s),

This is my first post to the thread. I started an aquaculture venture with a few partners a year ago. We did try on poly tanks for red tilapia but didnt work out as the tanks we found were not that feasible as we could only healthily stock 300+- adult tilapia in one tank. The tanks were 3000 liter(600 gallon) circular poly tanks from BNC n measured 2mx2m. Now we've switched to concrete tanks that were used for paper factory 20 yrs ago and re-do a system and piping for aquaculture. I've been following this thread since half a year ago and find it very informative and a very positive sharing attitude among most members in all areas of agriculture and aquaculture. I truly appreciate the generosity all the masters and sifus and pros and other people have given and now I also want to participate in this thread, to learn as well as to share on whatever knowledge I have learned.

Regarding fish fries, do you know of any good suppliers in Perak, as I am based here. I have been getting from Kam Sing(kampar) and Wong(gopeng) and have had bad results - up to 70%-90% mortality rate. Only the fries i get from kk road(Ng) is good, only 15-30% mortality rate. I'm not sure what the problem is, is it the groundwater im using not enough oxygen cause not enough sunlight in storage tank? or not enough days under the sun? is there a way to check or to tell if the water is good enough? or is it calcium or malnutrition from the water source? any suggestions?

cause in the storage tank we also have like 1000-2000 fish, and they grow till grade A fish in 7-8 months with minimal feed, and those were leftover fry from the last harvest from that tank. So im guessing the water quality shouldnt be too bad if the fish there can grow and breed as well. does rust also play a big part with fish health? as our concrete tanks are old n reused and some have metal bits with rust.

or was it because of the rainy season and the water was too cold? The earlier batch was a bit bigger and wasnt affected much and they were in the same system, but the new batch died during the rainy season during 9 wong yeh. We were saying that the 9 wong yeh came and took some fishes back. haha.

I am currently looking for new red tilapia suppliers for the next batch. Planning to get from a few sources and grow them side by side to see the differences in quality and growth rates. Been getting them at 6cents-9cents depending on size. I grow the fry in 20x10 ft tanks in 3-4 ft of water and stock 2000-2500 per tank till 6-8 inches. Then transfer them to growout tanks which are 30x30ft and 10ft in depth and stock 6000-10000 per tank. I know the depth is not ideal as oxygen goes lower in deeper water n less surface area. but we have one 3hp swirling paddlewheel in each tank which I think is good enough. Fish have been growing to 500gms in 5 months, so we still need to improve. I dont think there's a problem with the growout tanks. Just the fry tanks aren't good enough. Maybe not enough aeration as their appetite is pretty low - 2-5% of bodyweight in average. Hard to get them to consume more. When in the growout tanks, their appetite is like monsters. Throw two bags finish in 5mins. Feed until scared.

I'm just a noob with a lot of interest in fish, been fishing for over 20 yrs and been gutting fish since then haha. Stumbled into aquaculture/aquaponics 8 years ago, got interested and started doing research. Then came back to malaysia and then my partners asked me to join them, what a dream come true.

Joined this thread in hopes of getting help solving problems i face at work and also to help out if someone has a similar problem and also to b**** about work, haha. What a long-winded first post. Lol. Thanks all for your time to read/reply to my post. Cheers!!  

Hi Mr farmer. Not a good idea for a visit. We are still building and renovating a lot and the place is in a mess. Maybe in a few months should be alright. Our place is such a mess now, not worth a visit yet.

Can i ask? What type of farm is ur fren intending to do? Concrete, poly tanks or earthen ponds?
If ur fren really wants a visit to a farm, i know of a farm in rawang doing tilapia which is one of the biggest players, i think. And they are also distributors for CP(starfeed). I think that is a better choice for a visit for ur fren. Our system also isnt that good yet and needs a lot of improvement. Maybe i can post up some pictures later so your fren can have an idea of how it looks like?

That farm of Rawang is the biggest player in Tilapia farming and leading distributor for CP Feed. However, I don't think they allow outsider to visit their farms unless you know the bosses personally. They should be accorded with utmost respect in Tilapia industry as they are one of the largest supplier in Tilapia. Or else the price would be much much higher without their supply. They have sacraficed much for the industry. However, I do advise you to be prudent in everything you see and plan to do.

Also don't forget to ask what's at the bottom of their pond, pond bottom is extremely important for Tilapia farming success. Get the idea of it, there are several ways to achieve the objective as well. The objectives are the same, technique may be different.

There are many who aspire to do well in Tilapia farming, many dreams and ambitions, way too many pretenders, but in the end too few survived, let alone succeed. I can say 9.5/10 farms are not profitable. Yes, we survived and succeeded after much hardship, but the major credit should go to my partner in this business.

I should not be saying this as I'm in this business and it's related supply chain, I should be much promoting the hype and encourage more people into this business. Then again, it's always my principles to be truly "Brutally Honest".
Also fact it that this is a very lucrative business because of the price, that also because of dwindling supplies and rising costs.

Besides sufficient capital, You need :
1) Very good attitude
2) Extreme patience and perseverance
3) Very good observation
4) High Curiosity and willingness to experiment to verify the answers rather than just blindly following. Every farms/Locations have different need and problems.
5) Very good man-management skills unless you are 100% hands on. I too believe that being a business owner, you should hands on, everything your labor is doing. Your worker would not do much the thinking part for you, so you need to be hands on in the beginning.

Be very prepared. and make the big money. Succeed where most fail will definitely make you big money. This business is not for everyone, not as easy as it seems in the beginning. It will be relaxing and rewarding in the end.

Any farms that you know that allows visiting? Was thinking of taking my friend there to look see, before he does more decision. Thanks.

I can't request any of my customers' farm for visit by outsider as it would not be an appropriate and difficult question for them. They will find it difficult to reject my request if I do ask.

However, I can allow visit to my own farm.

Fry mortality should not be more than 10% mortality in my opinion. I could not comment on quality of fry of other hatchery, where everyone have their own opinion. All I can say is that keep trying until you get a good supplier. I felt that fry should be strenghten with at least Vitamin C before being sold. However, on your part, Tilapia fry should not be immediately release into your pond/tank. Unopen bag should be left inside pond/tank for certain period to allow the water temperature in the bag to sync with the pond/tank temperature, and also to reduce the stress of the fry because the fry was manhandled during transport.

Though I'm not a fan of tank or concrete culturing, but I know its not a problem at all to do 20 fish per meter cube of water in a well equip tanks, there are several issues to consider.
1) Are your fishes having too much exercise? because the fish may be slimmer than those in pond culture but the taste texture is definitely better. After all we all want higher yield in weight.
2) How do you find your profit margin for tank aquaculture? Most cases I know was that the operating expenditure is much higher. Where there would be pressure on profit margin.
3) You have issue with water being too clean?
Then again, I still keep my insterest in high density culture in tanks and concrete because I believe that one day these methods will be more profitable than pond culture, but just not yet.

"Fish farmer should be worry when their fishes no appetite, would be happy to give as much as possible as long as the fishes have appetite"

By the way, how is your FCR?

That farm of Rawang is the biggest player in Tilapia farming and leading distributor for CP Feed. However, I don't think they allow outsider to visit their farms unless you know the bosses personally. They should be accorded with utmost respect in Tilapia industry as they are one of the largest supplier in Tilapia. Or else the price would be much much higher without their supply. They have sacraficed much for the industry. However, I do advise you to be prudent in everything you see and plan to do.

Also don't forget to ask what's at the bottom of their pond, pond bottom is extremely important for Tilapia farming success. Get the idea of it, there are several ways to achieve the objective as well. The objectives are the same, technique may be different.

There are many who aspire to do well in Tilapia farming, many dreams and ambitions, way too many pretenders, but in the end too few survived, let alone succeed. I can say 9.5/10 farms are not profitable. Yes, we survived and succeeded after much hardship, but the major credit should go to my partner in this business.

I should not be saying this as I'm in this business and it's related supply chain, I should be much promoting the hype and encourage more people into this business. Then again, it's always my principles to be truly "Brutally Honest".
Also fact it that this is a very lucrative business because of the price, that also because of dwindling supplies and rising costs.

Besides sufficient capital, You need :
1) Very good attitude
2) Extreme patience and perseverance
3) Very good observation
4) High Curiosity and willingness to experiment to verify the answers rather than just blindly following. Every farms/Locations have different need and problems.
5) Very good man-management skills unless you are 100% hands on. I too believe that being a business owner, you should hands on, everything your labor is doing. Your worker would not do much the thinking part for you, so you need to be hands on in the beginning.

Be very prepared. and make the big money. Succeed where most fail will definitely make you big money. This business is not for everyone, not as easy as it seems in the beginning. It will be relaxing and rewarding in the end.

I can't request any of my customers' farm for visit by outsider as it would not be an appropriate and difficult question for them. They will find it difficult to reject my request if I do ask.

However, I can allow visit to my own farm.

ah_suknat:

Crazy thought - make duck confit/smoked duck/duck sausage etc. The tough meat should become tender and less chewy when used to make those long-stewing processed products.

My fry mortality is quite high, between 30-50%. The last batch we just graded was 50%. But recorded mortality was about 20-30%. Really headache to answer to my partners about this rate of mortality. Have to rethink my fry tanks, should be DO too low, as appetite is low and also water quality. Need to condition the water longer as its underground water.

When adding the fry i do the condition them before adding to the tank. 10 mins for the temp to level out and add water slowly to the bags before releasing.

1. Not too sure how to tell if the fish is exercising too much. How to tell? Will having too much exercise,reduce their weight as well? Like humans doing cardio and dropping weight. Same principle??

2. Profit margin is low, so must use economies of scale to counter. After all the variable costs are feed, electricity and water. Only thing can reduce is feed, so the lower FCR, the more profits. Thats my thought process la. So have to find 'free' supplement feed to reduce pellet cost. Duckweed, veggie waste, expired bread etcetc.

3. Not too clean, just not enough conditioning.

FCR is between 0.7-1.3. The lower it is, the more $$$ u make..

Planning to do catfish now. Need to do proposal plan for my partners.. Anyone can help with the costing?

Sir,
You do sound like you know your stuff really well. Much thanks for your advice and views.

I heard of the rawang farm not long ago from a distributor, and was looking for ways to visit myself. I guess its only normal for them to keep their secret though.

When you speak about whats at the bottom of the pond, does this relate to concrete tanks too? Or did you mean for earthen ponds?

9.5/10??? Wow, thats really upsetting to hear. For me, i really think if given the right system, management and sufficient funds, there are profits to be made. But then that is only theoretical, because in reality there are so much more problems than rearing the fish itself - economy, marketing, sales, pricing, management, weather etcetc all makes a difference to your total yield. My biggest problem so far is the marketing and sales. Would you say that there are too many tilapia suppliers around and too few distributors/buyers? Or is it that i have not dug deep enough to find buyers? I have went online, wholesale markets, normal markets and etcetc, but i still have only around 5 distributors who provides transport but also arent that reliable. Promise to collect fish next week, but no show/give excuse cannot take the fish. Thinking of transporting fish myself now, so im not at their mercy.

Yes i am fully hands on, as we started without foreign workers. So we did everything ourselves, until the last 3 months where we finally got foreign workers to come in. However, i still have to lead the boys by example and also to show them the working pace that is accepted. So i still am hands on even with foreign workers in. Only by being hands on, i can understand more and get more ideas to improve. Ive gotten so dark nowadays, my indian friends are laughing at me. Lol! They be like "bro why u so black?". Haha

And i totally agree with you on your statement - succeeding whr most fail will definitely make big money!

Ok, noted.
I don't really know that much as I haven't sit down with him. Shall speak more with him when I come back to attend MAHA 2014.
Can let me have the contact of this Rawang farm? Thank you.

https://www.techinasia.com/igrow-startup-ar...arta/?source=fb
what do you guys thinks of this?

an app that allows urbanites to invest in agriculture project

There's a few people which actually manage to breed this fish in the market. However, whether they can produce it every month is questionable. Furthermore, most of them won't share most of the information to stranger.

Prof. Seno is one of the guy that actually successfully breed and rear soon hock till juvenile and capable to repeat it again and again. His survival rate on breeding and rearing the fish is about 5%-10% (data he gave in 2009). The thing with him is, he is an educationists. They published their result in International journal  and have proper hatchery and nursery for Marble Goby research. Thus, more reliable. Even if they want to bullshit anyone...there's will be some implication on their status.