How to Make Floating Catfish Feed Pellet Nigeria
Before we get into the details of making floating fish feed pellets let’s first discuss why floating fish feed pellets are so popular. First, let’s discuss the benefits of floating fish feed pellets. Floating fish feed has many advantages over traditional sinking feeds. The raw material is moved along the barrel by the extruder screw. After being cooked at 120-175degC for 30 seconds, floating fish feed pellets become easier to digest. Heat and stress can also inactivate or destroy enzymes. Because the feed is more slowly broken down, it helps stabilize the feed in the water. This gives the fish enough time for them to finish their meal.
Benefits of floating catfish pellets
1. Gelatinization with High Starch
The starch gelatinization rate can be increased to 80-99% by heating the raw materials. Aquatic fish are easier to digest.
2. Enhance Water Stability and Environment
Floating pellets are less likely to dissolve in water and floating feed permits fish farmers to monitor the health of their fish and determine how much feed they have consumed.
3. Water Absorption
The extrusion moisture content can be controlled to a large extent during processing, which improves the water stability of final feed. These particles are more absorbent, retain their shape for longer and less likely to lose nutrients. This improves pellet technology quality and fish’s health.
4. Better Digestion And Absorption
Fish feed pellets can quickly be broken down in fish’s stomachs, resulting in loss of nutrients (during acid reflux). This helps to absorb nutrients better.
5. Feeding Environment
Fish are raised in water so pellets need to be stable in order to keep their nutrition and shape. Smaller fish feed particle size helps improve stability.
Catfish feed production using local ingredients
You can buy ingredients for your production such as fish meal, soybean meal, cottonseed meal and rice bran. You will also need groundnut cake and maize.
Catfish feed requires 48% protein from soybean meal. It is easy to digest and has essential amino acids. Groundnut cake can be moldy, but it can still be used in place of soybean meal.
When properly processed, maize makes up 32% of feed composition. It is very energy-packed. The cottonseed meal, which has a 45% protein level, is low in lysine so can be replaced with soybean meal.
Fish meal, which is rich in protein, is an important component to fish feed. It can be cooked and dried. Rice bran, which is high in fat, should be used sparingly to make feed meal.
Catfish Farming in Nigeria
Feeding their fish stock is the biggest cost to farmers. Imported feed is expensive, and fish need a lot of it. Farmers need to be able to make local floating catfish feed.
You can go through 1000 catsfish in a week if you keep them all in your pond. A 50kg bag costs N6000 per week.
Catfish, despite its high price tag on fish feed, is considered a fine delicacy. There are many applications and outlets for this fish, as well as a stable market.
Adult catfish are priced according to their weight, with 1kg fish at N600. One fish can easily reach 2kg, which is equivalent to N1200.
Small and large catfish farmers alike can lower feed costs by making their own nutritious feed. Producing your own feed has many benefits, including fast growth of fish and a lower cost.
It is possible to make feed using local row materials that are readily available on the market. This can reduce foreign dependence on imported feed, and even create secondary income.
How to Make Floating Fish Feed
1. Preparing raw materials
Soybean meal and cottonseed meal, wheat kernels, flour, fish derivatives, fish derivatives. Plant derivatives. Algae, oils, minerals, proteins
2. Grinding raw materials:
Before making feed pellets, raw materials must be ground into powder.
3. Mixing raw materials:
Mixing raw materials can be complicated because there are so many options. Mixing the vitamins and minerals with the fish feed ingredients can be done in small quantities. If you don’t want to make your fish feed pellets, you can use a mixing machine to mix your fish feed.
4. Extrusion:
The fish feed pellet extruder passes the feed mixture. The die is set to the correct diameter. After extrusion, the pellets will be chopped or broken down into smaller pieces.
5. Drying pellets after drying:
Granules with high moisture levels are difficult to pack and store. The granules should be dried to a moisture content less than 10%. Keep the temperature below 60oC.
6. Fish feed pellet packaging:
The feed pellets cannot be consumed at once. They can be stored in bags or containers to prevent moisture and insects from entering the food.
