9 Proven Ways To Make Money From Catfish Farming

Introduction

One of the most lucrative agribusinesses in Nigeria and even the world is fish farming most importantly catfish farming. When people decide to go into catfish farming, they focus on only the most common way of making money from it which is raising from fingerlings to the table size.

According to statistics, fish consumption accounts for around 40% of the protein sources consumed in Nigeria.

So, why will you not want to farm fish?

Whereas, there are several ways you can make money from the catfish business, some of which you don’t even have to own a farm or spend any money.

All you need is to devote your time to make it work.

Many people go into catfish farming because of its ease compared to other types of livestock.

How To Make Money From Catfish Farming

You may ask, so how do I make money from catfish farming generally except raising from juvenile to table size? In this article,

I will be sharing with you 9 tested and trusted ways to make money from catfish farming.

As I mentioned earlier, some of these methods only require your time, experience, and little money.

1. Hatchery

The first way to make money from catfish farming is through hatching.

Hatchery is the process of artificially inducing female fish (usually weighing around 2kg or more) to produce fries. The whole process of hatching usually takes 24 to 48 hours.

After hatching the eggs, you need to manage the fries for four to seven weeks before selling them at either fries, fingerlings, or juvenile to those that will raise them to melange or table size.

This method of making money from fish farming is very technical because you need some training and patience before you can say you are a guru in the hatchery process.

The amazing thing about this method of making money from catfish farming is that within 4 weeks you can make money. It requires proper management before it will reach the level where they are left alone without any issues.

People pay thousands of naira to learn how to hatch a catfish egg.

If you have time and you’re ready to take risks, then you can opt for this method.

Want to learn how to hatch catfish? Get the simple guide HERE

2. Raising To Table Size

This is the most common way of making money from catfish farming. The population of those into breading fingerlings and juveniles to table size is more and if only people can look into other aspects of the catfish business.

The market for catfish is very huge and the demand cannot be overlooked. Individuals, restaurants, bars, hotels, etc are always searching for fish.

People that go into breeding catfish this way buy fingerlings or juveniles from reliable farmers and raise them for a minimum of 3 months before selling them.

This method of making money from catfish is capital-intensive. Before deciding to go into raising catfish to melange or table size (most time 1kg), there are some things you need to put in place.

3. Selling Broodstock

How do you breed a fish without a broodstock? Broodstocks are adult male and female catfish induced to produce fries.

A good female broodstock can produce at least 20,000 fries at a go.

Some people focus mainly on raising broodstock and selling them to farmers that want to hatch a fish.

You may be wondering how I get a fish to raise for broodstock and how I even go about it.

When those that raise fish to table size are ready to sell the fish, you will approach the sellers and buy the fish from them and continue to raise them till the fish are mature to be used for hatching.

A good broodstock should be at least 8 months and must weigh nothing less than 1 kilogram for optimal production.

This method of making money from catfish does not require you to spend so much on feeding them and it is less risky.

You only need to feed the broodstock once.

4. Processing And Packaging

The next way you can make money from catfish is through processing and packaging.

This is a big opportunity people are sleeping on. This way of making money from catfish is less risky than other ways so far you know how to market the products.

When I first started catfish farming, I started with hatching. It was so profitable and everything was going well until early 2016 when the recession hit Nigeria. Many of my customers could not afford the high cost of feed at that time, so they had to quit farming.

This also affected me and I had to re-strategize pending the main time when things will go back to normal. I put a pause on hatching and went to processing and packaging the fish.

To some extent, catfish packaging wasn’t that common, I had so much success selling them to individuals and some mini store around my area.

But it is too late to go into processing as the market is saturated. NO. The demand is still way more than the supply, so if you know your onus, you can still make it big on processing and packaging the fish.

You don’t have to process the fish yourself, you can outsource the process and when it is done, you package it with your brand name.

I have a video on how I smoke my catfish.

5. Become A Consultant

Another way to make money from catfish farming is by becoming a consultant.

This method only requires you to make some initial investment by going for adequate training on how you can understand the dynamics of the catfish business.

There are two ways to become a consultant.

1. Offering consulting services on starting a catfish farm
2. Offering consulting services on managing the farm

No matter the two methods you decide to go into, you will make you make your money.

A lot of people want to start a catfish farm but don’t know how to go about it. So, if you put it upon yourself to make the initial investment in learning from the best and the rest is history.

6. Rent Out A Farm Space

The next way to make money from catfish farming is to rent out a farm space. This method is capital intensive although it is an initial capital investment.

80% of people that want to go into fish farming don’t have their personal space, this is where you come in.

Look for an area where you can buy acres of land that is good for farming, acquire it, put a fence around it (which might not be necessary), build different types of ponds on it, and rent it out to people.

You will be surprised at the turnout of people that will be begging you to rent out your pond to them.

Note: Do your due diligence before acquiring any land.

7. Open A Store To Sell Fish Equipment And Feeds

If you don’t want to go through the traditional way of making money from catfish farming, the next method is what you can give a try.

You can decide to rent a shop or if you have a spare space in your house, stock it up with different fish equipment and even fish feeds.

The location of your store will depend on how the environment is generally. What do I mean?

You should not open a store where there will be no demand for fish equipment or feeds.

This is also capital intensive like the point mentioned above.

8. Become An Agent

The next way to make money from catfish farming is to become an agent.

This does not require you to own a farm or know anything about catfish farming, all you need is to know people that sell and buy catfish.

An agent is someone that connects farm owners with fish buyers and when an agreement is made, he/she collects a percentage commission based on the number of fish that are being sold/bought.

The amazing thing about this method is that if you have a 9 – 5 job, you don’t have to quit your job.

9. Organize Workshop And Seminars

The last method I will be looking at is to organize workshops and seminars for whoever wants to learn about catfish farming.

For you to be able to make money from catfish farming using this method, you need to pass through some training that will have made you become a semi-guru.

This is important because you don’t want a situation where you are talking in a seminar, someone asks you a question, and you stutter. That will be an embarrassing moment for you and I know you will not want that to happen.

There is a man I know very well who organizes seminars every weekend for people that want to learn catfish farming. He collects a minimum of ₦ 5,000 ($12.87) from each person and there is always a massive turn-up (An average of 40 persons every weekend).

People keep coming back because he knows what he is doing. You also can be the next person making thousands of naira every weekend if you are willing to learn also.

Other ways to make money from catfish farming are:

1. Sell a product (ebook, video course, etc.)
2. Sell stock photos online
3. Make picture books

Conclusion

The sky is big enough for anyone that wants to start and make money from catfish farming.

If you go through this list and read carefully, I am very sure you will find one sure way that will suit your personality which you can go for to make money.

Procrastination is a thief of time, so make that decision today and start to make money from catfish farming.

Whenever you decide to start, you can check this article to guide you on how to start a fish farm.

Cheers to your success.