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?

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?

This post has been edited by iyeap: Nov 22 2014, 10:26 AM

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!

Is it ok if i tag along to your farm? Always good to learn and take advice esp from the more experienced.

Oh my. I think i have that weed in some areas of the farm. Is the flowers only white in colour? Or also in purple colour as seen from the article. Long time no hear from all the sifus here.

2k. Lets say have a 1.5 FCR. 1.5kg of feed produces 1 kg of fish. And u want to sell the fish at 300gms(c fish@rm5). So 2000 x 0.3kg = 600kg. For your fish to reach 600kg u need 600 x 1.5 = 900kg of feed. Pellets cost around RM2.80/kg. So RM2.80 x 900 = RM2520. And your sales will be RM5 x 600 = RM3000. So theres not much to be made at all with 2000 C fish. Unless u sell A fish @ 0.7kg per fish. So you can roughly do the math now. I hope i didnt mislead or misinform.

This post has been edited by iyeap: Jan 24 2015, 09:34 PM

Yeah maybe i havent dugdeep enough looking for buyers. Its a multi million dollar industry. Gotta deep further in. Haha



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Might have slower growth then pellets or meat based foods. But apparently duckweed has 40% protein. And the fishes love it. I can never grow enough. I have designated ponds which are solely for duckweed and using used water from the fish tanks. And i still do not have enough duckweed for the whole farm. But remember to add some other fishes which doesnt eat duckweed to control mosquitoes. Like the Moustache fish or prawns. Our arowanas love the moustache fish.