Cheaper Alternative Feeds for Pangasius
May 25, 2009 by Leo 3,100 Views
Small-farmers are now in a better position to join the Pangasius bandwagon, after the BFAR Region 02 has determined the viability of feeding the fish with indigenous or alternative diet.
Dubbed as ‘the new darling of the aquaculture industry, pangasius offers more income compared to other popular farmed fishes, however, it also requires higher capitalization.
One reason attributed to the high production expenses is the cost of fingerlings, at 3.50 to 7 pesos a piece, which were sourced from Nueva Ecija province.
Main reason however, is the cost of commercial feeds, which has been determined to account nearly 80 percent of total production cost.
“Pangasius can easily grow to more or less 1 kilo in 6 months. To do so, the fish also requires more feeds as compared, for example, to tilapia,” Dominador Abalos said during the Harvest Field Day on pangasius culture in cages here.
“Our project here has proven however, that we can significantly cut on feed expense by mixing golden snail (kuhol) with commercial feeds,” the Project Leader for the pangasius commodity program of the BFAR Region 02 said.
The fish cage project established at the Pagkain ng Bayan SWIP near the provincial capitol here, is a joint undertaking of the BFAR and the Quirino provincial government.
It consist of 9 cages with dimension of 3m x 3m x 2meters stocked with 144 pieces 9 grammers (2 – 3 inches) fingerlings each.
According to Abalos, two feeding treatments were made – the first 5 cages with pure commercial feeds and the rest, a mixture of 60percent commercial feeds and 40 kuhol.
After a 6-month culture period, the project implementers have determined that growth is even higher for the stocks fed with kuhol compared to those fed with commercial feeds alone.
Harvest weight averaged at 712.5 grams compared to 676 grams for the stocks fed with commercial feeds. “The savings on feed expense translate to 45.75 percent retum on investment as against 20 percent only for the treatment on pure commercial feeds,” Abalos explained.
He said that the good growth can be attributed to the high crude protein (CP) content of kuhol which is around 54 percent.
Production expense averaged at 6,023 pesos per cage for the first treatment and 5,293 pesos for the second.
Organic Pangasius Culture
The project leader also disclosed during the harvest field day result of their study on the organic culture of pangasius conducted at the Dacuycuy farm in Sillawit, Cauayan City, which he said, is also feasible and profitable even with the absence of commercial feeds.
“Our stocks reached 550 grams apiece within 6 months in fishpond culture. Stocking density is 1 piece per square meter. Although weight gain is lower, we can still have income as the stocks were fed purely with surplus vegetables and fruits, and also kuhol.”
Abalos, however, added that further studies are needed particularly on the determination of nutritional value of the indigenous / alternative diet to enable them to come up with appropriate feeding combination under organic culture.
According to BFAR RO2 regional director Dr. Jovita Ayson, this project is the latest among a roster of cost-cutting and productivity-enhancement technologies introduced this year.
This includes 45-days delayed feeding technology, use of duckweeds as feeds and polyculture (2 variances).
“We encourage our fish farmers who are interested in these technologies to visit our office for proper technical advice, especially now with the ongoing financial crisis,” Ayson said.
Other Feeds
Very few Pangasius grow-out farms in Vietnam buy commercial feed for their fish. This is in order to cope with the low price of harvested fish in the market. There is no way for them to profit if they will buy commercial feeds, thus they make their own feed.
Their feed formulation varies from farm to farm but usually contain any of these farm by-products such as dead chicken, still born pigs, chicken entrails, fish entrails, stale fish in combination with rice bran, copra meal, soya etc. These are moistened and passed through a meat grinder to form an extruded pellet and fed directly to Pangasius.
With this practice, feed cost is reduced to only 25-40% of the cost of commercial feed. (contributed by J.P. Baldia)
For more information, contact:
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Building,
Elliptical Road Diliman, Quezon City
Phones: (02) 929-9597/8074
Email : info@bfar.da.gov.ph
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Regional Office No. 02
Carig Sur, Tuguegarao City
Phone: (078) 844-4252
author: Max Prudencio BFAR Region 2, www.bfar.da.gov.ph, photo from worldofpangasius.com.vn
2009 · All Rights Reversed ·
To whom it may concern:
Can you please give us an idea of where to buy fingerlings here in davao city including there contact details.
Thank you,
Joseph,
Hi ! we are based in Mindanao, particularly in Davao City. We can provide Panggasius Fingerlings. Our contact no. is 0929-5353731.
Dear Jorge,
Can you please give me your address here in davao city for us to able to visit you.
we are interested on this.
Thank you very much.
Cris Joseph
The last 2 years I worked in Vietnam for an aquaculture company at the aquaculture zone of An Giang province.
In our location there are thousands of hectares of fishponds and countless number of fish cages.
Years before (according to this fish farmers) they feed their Pangas with rice bran, soya meal, dried fish, dried wastes of crabs and shrimps, grounded, balled and air dried.
But nowadays they would rather buy floating pellet feed from commercial millers because they are more assured that they can harvest in due time due to faster growth compared to their self formulated feed because the growth would be a bit slower.
Almost every week I traverse those rivers teeming with fish cages and floating houses with cages under it but I seldom see people feeding their Pangasius with self formulated feeds. Although, the domestic left over foods on those floating houses are poured down into the fish in cages under those houses.
The Seafood Processors and Exporters of Vietnam are encouraging fish farmers to use commercial feeds as per demand by their European and Russian customers. The meat quality is better with fish feed with commercial feed. Also, they are into GAP – Good Aquaculture Practices that formulated feed without quality standards are discourage.
The “self” formulated feed being wet easily sinks down to the pond bottom and when fish try to eat them the mud at the pond bottom goes with it making the fish smell muddy. And feeding that in cages is not efficient because they easily break loose in the water and a lot goes out of the net. If you can see the movement of the fish during feeding frenzy you will observe that a lot of feed are being wasted if they are not floater feed.
In Vietnam people would rather eat the chicken entrails and kuhol than feed them to the fish.
In the Philippines I don’t think that formulated feed would be significantly cheaper compared to commercial feed. Just think how much today is the price of rice bran per kilo? In some places they are even hard to find. Likewise, what about the price of soya meal, fish meal, and copra meal? Kuhol is also hard to find in some areas. And chicken entrails would find them priced better in the streets as “isaw”.
And doing it manually with the meat grinder how much time you need to grind 100 kilos? Will you let somebody grind it for free? Use a mechanical grinder or one that is run by electricity? How much that will cost you? Knowing the cost of these materials and the effort of making it, one can come up with the price and compared it to the commercial feed. But also think about the culture period and the FCR.
And I don’t think the fish would be attractive to the Filipino consumers if they know that you are feeding it with dead chicken and still-born pigs. What about bio-security?
In Saudi we have tried to make soya and chicken manure as feed but they were steam cooked and pelletized. It can partly substitute the commercial formulated feed for some weeks of feeding even for shrimps.
Just sharing some thoughts.
There is no way we can compete with the price of Vietnam if Filipino pangasius farmers will feed their fish with commercial feed. Commercial floating feeds in the Philippines now costs on the average P26-28 per kg.
At an FCR of 1.5, Feed cost alone will be P39-42/kg fish produced. This is can be achieved on lucky days when recovery rates are high and feeding ration are most efficient. At the current buying price of Pangasius at P50.00/kg whole fish, where will the producer get their labor cost, fingerling cost, fuel cost etc. It will be a losing proposition if commercial pellets will be used.
The chicken entrails mentioned here are the large intestines which are not made into isaw. Only the small intestine are used for isaw. These are the same ingredients used by feed companies for their meat and bone meal source.
Based on my farm economics, using home made feeds will save the fishfarmer 50-70% of the feed cost, labor and power included. It will also take only one hour to extrude 100 kg of feed in a commercial meat grinder.
Mummified hog fetus is a result of some nutrient deficiency and not necessary from disease. Of course, they can be boiled before incorporating into feeds.
The same growth rate and FCR can be achieved if the farmer will take into account the nutrient profile of his home made feed.
The fact is, even if one formulates his own feed using traditional ingredients like soya, rice bran, fish meal etc., and have it toll processed into floating pellets, a 30-40% savings on feed cost can be realized because you save on the marketing cost, salaries, and other operating costs of the feed miller.
I have a feeling that Mr. Thuy is connected to a feed company
Mr. Thuy is not currently connected with any feed company but has been involved in the aquaculture industry for more than 20 years growing various species of fish and shrimps under different conditions im several countries. Though I have worked in a feed company before and also in the processing of seafood products for the export market.
Anyway, Mr. Baldia’s posts are very informative. It is good that guys like him would share their views for the newbies to ponder upon.
Not until you tried it then you will know.
Anyway, I’m just sharing my thoughts on these stuffs. Dont have the intention to promote something or meant to offend anybody.
Sub: Poultry waste and rice bran also induction of common carp
Dear Mr. Baldia,
I have seen your reply to Jen Fernandez on 9th july and am please to note that poultry wastes if grounded and mixed with rice bran (balled) and fed to the fish should be enough feed for Pangas to grow well!
Will the above feed combination allow the fish to grow to say 1 or 1.5 kg in 6-8 months? 2 Kg in 12 months?
Even though the above combination would be cheep enough but would not be floating and would sink right away and might cause massive water pollution, will it be worth while to culture some bottom feeders such as e.g. common carp which could consume most of the unconsumed feed at the ponds bottom?
Regards,
Nadeem Alam
dfsfarms@yahoo.com
Mr. Nadeem Alam:
I have already answered some of your inquiries in my comment above.
Reur last question, Pangasius are bottom feeders as well. Thus they can eat the feeds that settle at the bottom. Pangasius can be stocked at unimaginable densities which your carps may not tolerate, unless you are stocking Pangasius at 1/m2 which is impractical and a waste of time, space and effort.
Feeding management will be important in minimizing feed wastes.
First, you should have a good idea of your population and the size of your fish. From here you can compute for their ration for the day. Further, Pangasius are active feeders. You feed them gradually until they are eating. Once they are full, they go away. Hence, you can stop feeding them.
One good thing about Pangasius is that they can utilize atmospheric oxygen because of their accessory breathing apparatus. For this reason, Pangasius can tolerate some pollution in the water.
Stocking densities in ponds feed with floating pellet feeds ranges from 40 to 60/m2 at water depth average of 1.5 meters. In fish cages stocking densities goes as high as 100 to 120/m2. water depth of 6 to 8 meters average and with current flow. Growth period is 6 months at ABW 1.0 kgs. ABW of 2 kgs. in 1 year is attainable.
Mr. Thuy:
Just to clarify- on a per cubic meter (m3) basis stocking density in ponds is 27/m3-40/m3. While in cages with a depth of 6m, its 17.0-20/m3, and at 8m depth, its 12.5 and 15/m3.
It didnt publish my email id, here it is : eashwar_anand@fishingchimes.com
Mr Baldia, we are an aquaculture magazine – Fishing Chimes – published from India since 29 years. Your research in Pangasius is tremendous. Could you give me your email , I would like to get in touch with you regarding Pangasius. This would be very useful to the public as well as the government institutions who are now working on this direction.
thanks
Are the mummified fetuses from piggery farms and chicken entrails enough to sustain the rapid growth of pangasius since you stated that they need enough protein? Will it be feasible that we only have to give them meat at vegetables, and not give them feeds?
Usually, these farm wastes are ground, mixed with rice bran, balled and fed to the fish. Pangasius cannot digest vegetables as I have stated elsewhere in this site. This should be enough feed for your Pangasius to grow well.
Mr. Leo:
I want to send a picture of how they make practical pangasius feeds in Vietnam. How do I do it?
Pls just email it at jenneth.gigi@gmail.com
Thanks!
@J.P. Baldia, please send to my email pinghoi@gmail.com and I will post it here.
or you can create an account in photobucket.com, upload the pictures and post the link here.
btw, are you into aqua-culture business? i have a small pond (half hectare) in bulacan and i want to develop it into a hobby or small business na rin, and i might need your expert advice regarding tilapia and pangasius. thanks.
Will you be kind enough to inform us the growth results of your Pangas which are being fed with poultry and or Pig waste mixed with rice bran? I thing if the growth is good or even fair it is a good alternative feed which could be made at your farm?
How many fish are you culturing? and on what acerage?
Can you send some photographs of your farm and pangas culrure?
regards,
Nadeem Alam
dfsfarms@yahoo.com
Have read about the advantages of Duckweed (Lemna spp)earlier but have not yet tried it because of the problems associated with it – it is very difficult to control its growth if in case it finds its way in your production ponds.e.g.
How is it mixed with commercial food is it added as it is or crushed into liquid and added?
One of our friend in Sindh Pakistan tried it for a few weeks in their poly culture pond which was regularly fertilized with chicken and Animal manure – this weed some how managed to take control of their production lake of 25 acres – it took them months with a lot of labor to screen – clear it ultimately the lake was dried for harvesting and the dried duckweed had to be burnt – a very expensive experiment? they still have this problem?
Has the duckweed been effective in Pangas culture as the major cost i.e. 30% is on feed of high protein value – including rice bran, soya oil cake, fish meal etc. if effective the cost of feed could be reduced considerably?
Any comments – suggestions would be appreciated before i start using Duckweed with 18-42% crude protein.
thanks and regards,
Nadeem Alam
Dilshad Fish & Shrimp Farms
Karachi Pakistan
dfsfarms@yahoo.com
Pangasius is a carnivore and a scavenger (meaning it feeds on decaying animal flesh. As a carnivore, they do not have the enzymes needed to digest the cellulosic cell wall of plants. My guess is, lemna will have to be cooked first before feeding to pangasius or fermented with cellulosic bacteria in order for the fish to assimilate it.
Tilapia on the other hand is an omnivore, it feeds on both plant and animal materials. Thus, Tilapia can utilize duckweed as feed or as weed control. Grass Carp is another good candidate for weed control.
@J.P. Baldia, thanks for additional valuable inputs.
Erratum: The third sentence should read “My guess is, lemna will have to be cooked first before feeding to pangasius or fermented with cellulytic bacteria(cellulose lysing bacteria) in order for the fish to assimilate it.
I hope BFAR region2 can come up with a more innovative and intelligent assistance to the fishfarmers than this.
Pangasius is supposed to grow to more than 1kg after 6 months. Their experiments averaged only 700g and 500g. Anong brand ng feed ba ang ipinakain nyo? Kahit may kuhol, di pa rin lumaki.
Searching for a cheaper alternative feed and feed ingredients for fish is indeed a challenge for aquaculture practitioners. Of course, kuhol in this case is only for backyard operations. I have coaxed chi8ldren in the past to collect kuhol for me and it turned out more expensive. It is difficult if not impossible to collect kuhol in large volume for commercial production.
There are several new techniques in significantly reducing feed costs and these are all backed by scientific studies.
In Vietnam and China in particular, fishfarmers make their own feeds thereby reducing their feed cost to almost 50%. Techniques such as substituting fish meal (the most expensive ingredient)with soya, and alternately feeding the fish with high and low protein diet without significantly affecting growth of the fish have been shown in scientific research studies.
I invite everyone to read this NACA publication if they are interested in reducing their feed cost.
http://www.enaca.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=905
Leo,
Most feed companies have field technicians who are extending technical advises to their customers for free. You may approach them. Tilapia and Pangasius pond culture are relatively easy species to culture.