Catfish Fries Management: How To Manage Your Catfish Fries

Introduction

Enough of catfish fries dying and farmers crying to me for help. With this article, it will offer first-aid advice for managing your fries.

For sure I’m not going to spill all the tea here cos that will require a professional look into the situation as that is what I do to make money myself.

As you know you cannot get the best of things for FREE. So, manage the little I offer you in this article.

If you are a newbie in the fish farming business and you want to go into the hatching aspect of the business, you will know the hatching process is just a 24-hour process, and the main work starts after that. That’s where CATFISH FRIES MANAGEMENT comes in place.

What Is Catfish Management?

Catfish management is the day-to-day activity that helps keep the fish alive. This involves a lot of effort and helps that goes into seeing your catfish grow faster and bigger so you can make the money you invested into the business.

Both the big and the small pond needs proper management. We’re not looking into the grow-out fish in this article but fries management.

What does fries management mean?

Catfish fries management involves several activities involves things as feeding, changing water, treating the water (as the case may be), and so on.

Catfish Fries Management: How To Manage Your Fries

As I have mentioned earlier in this article, there are ways to slightly manage your fries to the point where they are ok and good to go.

The first 2 weeks of the life cycle of fries are critical in their survival and many new hatchers lose their fish at this point because they don’t know how to manage them.

The management process of fish fries is as follows:

Water Management

The first step to managing your fries is regulating the water in the pond.

Just like the big fish, fries need clean water even more often than the bigger ones. Forget about the pH of the water when you hatch the fish, it is more critical to have balanced water at this point than when you hatch them.

There are farms that have water that is acidic or the alkalinity is too much. How do they manage this when they eventually have their fries? Well, water management is not difficult but very corny and if you miss it then you will lose a lot of your fish.

Getting balanced water is one aspect of water management the second aspect is changing the water itself.

There are farms that practice the flow-through system when changing the water but if you’re managing the water itself, you can drain the water down a little bit before topping the water.

For catfish fries, you cannot drain the water completely from the pond before adding fresh water to them because they’re still very fragile.

Some people ask How often should I change my water? It is about using your discretion to do things when it comes to changing water.

After you hatch your catfish eggs, if there is water pollution that requires you to change the water immediately, change the water, if not wait for 24 hours before changing the water in the ponds.

Likewise, when changing the water, you cannot open the tap fully on the fries; if you do that, the force of the water will kill them. One way to do it is by opening the tap a little while the water drops into the hatchery ponds.

You should not be in a hurry to fill the water in the ponds on the fries.

Feed Management

Another thing you need to know in fries management is the feeding process.

When you just hatch your catfish eggs, they are referred to as LARVAE in the first three days after they’re hatched. At this point, they feed on their shell and they gradually come out of the shell after the first day then by the fourth day they become FRIES.

You start calling them fries/fish the day they start eating. It is on that day they start their journey to growing bigger.

There are different types of feed you can give them on the first day depending on how prepared you are or the type of feed you purchase for your fries.

If there is no feed for the fries on the first day, you can boil an egg for them and feed them a little with it. Don’t feed them much as their stomach is still small to take a lot of feed.

If you get the feed you’re supposed to give them, just drop a little for them, and watch as they feed on it. Some people will tell you to feed the fries 3 times from day 1, but I tell my mentees not to just little to everyone, feed them once on the first 3 days before you increase the quantity you’ll give them.

That is what I’ve been doing and which has been giving me success since I started this journey.

Dirt Management

The third and final point I will talk about in this article is dirt management.

Dirt management is done by siphoning the waste of feed from the ponds.

The fries are feeding every day and they are also excreting waste in the pond, so managing the dirt in the ponds will keep the ponds clean and keep the fries healthy at all times.

If you want to siphon, drain the water lower early in the morning before feeding the fish and siphon the dirt from the pond. Do this not too often so that you don’t overstress the fries.

If you have fed the fish in the morning, don’t try to remove the dirt that day. If you do so it can lead to the death of the catfish fries.

Conclusion

There is more to fries management than what I have written in this article because it is more practical than theory.

In the first weeks also, you can notice some foamy substance on the water while the fries gather in one spot, this is very dangerous to the health of the fries if not managed very well.

To recap what I have mentioned above, if you have been wondering how to manage your fries as a fish hatcher, below are what you should look out for:

i. Water management

ii. Feed management

iii. Dirt management.

I always say if you want to succeed in this business, seek professional services to train you. No money spent on training is a waste, you will get value for money.