RE:LOCAL FEED VS IMPORTED FEED FCR

Hello Ganiyu,
your last post was very interesting. I have just one question, which
is; in what type of pond did you get the FCR with the coppens feed
to be 0.92 and with local feed to be 1.25?
I ask this because your observation has defied all research in
Aquaculture. From what I know as a researcher, based on practical
established fact and from what I have come across in published
results (books, journals and sponsored experimental reports of FAO
and similar organizations) no feed and I repeat NO FEED has the
capacity ALONE to give WET FLESH value of 1 kilogram in fish when
920 grams of the dry feed is fed.
The best way to see the effect of dry feed on flesh gain is to feed
fish a trial diet in either glass, fiberglass or plastic tanks,
ensuring the fish do not have access to any residual nourishment.
The best any such diet has performed is to give FCR value of between
1.2 and 1.5 (and the source of protein was fish meal which has 95%
dry matter and protein digestibility) .
Even going by ordinary logic, which food ever became completely
digested, completely absorbed and completely utilized without
leaving some undigested matter to be passed out in the faeces? Or
assuming there was, how can a fish of say 3kilograms eat 920 grams
of feed without passing out faeces and then weigh 4 kilograms? where
is the 80 grams coming from (if the feed alone was responsible for
the weight gain)?
I think your reported FCR values are based on feeding fish in
earthen ponds, where the fish had the privilege of additional
nutrients from worms, insects and other natural food in the habitat
which were not accounted for in your FCR calculations. It could also
be that your fish are kept in cement or concrete ponds and there is
additional nutrients from the algal growth, which attracts other
smaller animals in the pond and so your fish fed on these. As to the
local feeds, I wish to state that most local ingredients are just
over 50% digestible and so most times, the best FCR you can get from
them is in the neighbourhood of 1.6 to 1.8, and this is for those
which are formulated to contain up to 30 to 35% crude protein. The
vast majority contain very high fiber contents which are not desired
by fish, unfortunately.
In conclusion, if such a feed which you talk about existed I am sure
the current research effort in trying to look for a genetic solution
for fish growth wouldn't have been totally necessary.
However, this is not to say that we cannot discover it in Nigeria.
We sure have the capacity but please check your facts. I certainly
plead to be corrected, while praying to Allah to save Nigeria!

local feed vs imported feed FCR

Hi Mohammed, Thanks for your contribution to this forum which I usually find useful. However, I would like to say you are wrong on this issue, very wrong indeed. What I have written about in my email have documented facts and I am going to back it up with the some facts and documentation. I really am pressed for time but I feel time spent in replying this email would be time well spent to correct some wrong impressions. I am not an expert at fish farming as I did not go to any training or school of agriculture but furtunately, a lot of information are available on documented research by agencies worldwide that can be regarded as genuine. I have also been involved in growing catfish for the past ten years in Lagos Most of information I provide are based on documentation on my farm as well as research we have done online. I understand you are from the academia but I must say that being too biased to the lab only might make it a bit it difficult for you to appreciate what is hapening on the "battle fronts" where we try to produce fish from the difficult infrastructure epidemic we find ourselves in Nigeria. Now, I will try and address the issues you raised. 1. The first evidence I have about my facts is in the attached document to this reply called "Feed Conversion ratios" If you go to page 2 and 3 of the attached research document, you would see a table documenting FCR range of between 0.90 and 1.70 for an experiment carried out by a research group. I am sure If you read the document, you would see more details of the findings but at the end of the day if the research document is real, we might want to believe them. 2. Second evidence I have is my own facility and based on the feed we give our fish, we do an average of between 1.20 to 1.30 FCR . I have information we have compiled over time in spreadsheets. I have concrete ponds with water exchange and some flowthrough systems. 3. My third evidence on this issue is linked to a company in Holland who have been involved in building recirculatory systems for farmers in Nigeria and other part of africa. If you go to the link below http://www.fleuren- nooijen.nl/ Downloads. html Click and download "African catfish recirculatory system" and you would get a pdf file which shows that you can get an FCR of 0.85 if you use their system. You will need to convince us that all the information I provided above are all wrong. This system proposed by the holland company is used by Durante in Nigeria and you can follow up with durante to give additional information that FCR of less than 1.00 is not a mirage nor does it come from my imagination. ... The document is attached as well labelled as Do note however that I would engage myself in long exchanges on this topic as I have attached all the documents and links I have to prove the point I raised. However, I like some of the points you made which are valid and very interesting especially the one on digestability of feed. This is quite low in Nigeria based on the kind of items we use for our feed production. Another problem we have in nigeria is that people would prefer to make local feed at a cost of =N=140 per kilo compared to spending close to =N190 for a better quality feed. a =N=140 feed can give you an FCR of close to 2.00 while the latter one would give a lower FCR of say 1.20 which means though the first feed is cheaper, u spend =N=280 per kilo while for the later u spend =N=240 naira per kilo to get the same 1kg of flesh. I suggest people should also spend some time on www.google.com to search for knowlegde on research in the catfish industry, most things are there if you search well enough. As they say, "there is nothing new under the sun" and Nigeria is so far behind the rest of the world, there would be only a few new findings that we can discover here, most of the work has been done in other parts of the world already. It is however important we dont just dump the research findings on ourselves, we should customise the information to our envinronment and specific needs.

local feed vs imported feed FCR

Hi Mohammed, Thanks for your contribution to this forum which I usually find useful. However, I would like to say you are wrong on this issue, very wrong indeed. What I have written about in my email have documented facts and I am going to back it up with the some facts and documentation. I really am pressed for time but I feel time spent in replying this email would be time well spent to correct some wrong impressions. I am not an expert at fish farming as I did not go to any training or school of agriculture but furtunately, a lot of information are available on documented research by agencies worldwide that can be regarded as genuine. I have also been involved in growing catfish for the past ten years in Lagos Most of information I provide are based on documentation on my farm as well as research we have done online. I understand you are from the academia but I must say that being too biased to the lab only might make it a bit it difficult for you to appreciate what is hapening on the "battle fronts" where we try to produce fish from the difficult infrastructure epidemic we find ourselves in Nigeria. Now, I will try and address the issues you raised. 1. The first evidence I have about my facts is in the attached document to this reply called "Feed Conversion ratios" If you go to page 2 and 3 of the attached research document, you would see a table documenting FCR range of between 0.90 and 1.70 for an experiment carried out by a research group. I am sure If you read the document, you would see more details of the findings but at the end of the day if the research document is real, we might want to believe them. 2. Second evidence I have is my own facility and based on the feed we give our fish, we do an average of between 1.20 to 1.30 FCR . I have information we have compiled over time in spreadsheets. I have concrete ponds with water exchange and some flowthrough systems. 3. My third evidence on this issue is linked to a company in Holland who have been involved in building recirculatory systems for farmers in Nigeria and other part of africa. If you go to the link below http://www.fleuren- nooijen.nl/ Downloads. html Click and download "African catfish recirculatory system" and you would get a pdf file which shows that you can get an FCR of 0.85 if you use their system. You will need to convince us that all the information I provided above are all wrong. This system proposed by the holland company is used by Durante in Nigeria and you can follow up with durante to give additional information that FCR of less than 1.00 is not a mirage nor does it come from my imagination. ... The document is attached as well labelled as Do note however that I would engage myself in long exchanges on this topic as I have attached all the documents and links I have to prove the point I raised. However, I like some of the points you made which are valid and very interesting especially the one on digestability of feed. This is quite low in Nigeria based on the kind of items we use for our feed production. Another problem we have in nigeria is that people would prefer to make local feed at a cost of =N=140 per kilo compared to spending close to =N190 for a better quality feed. a =N=140 feed can give you an FCR of close to 2.00 while the latter one would give a lower FCR of say 1.20 which means though the first feed is cheaper, u spend =N=280 per kilo while for the later u spend =N=240 naira per kilo to get the same 1kg of flesh. I suggest people should also spend some time on www.google.com to search for knowlegde on research in the catfish industry, most things are there if you search well enough. As they say, "there is nothing new under the sun" and Nigeria is so far behind the rest of the world, there would be only a few new findings that we can discover here, most of the work has been done in other parts of the world already. It is however important we dont just dump the research findings on ourselves, we should customise the information to our envinronment and specific needs.