With the introduction of floating feed into the Nigerian Aquaculture space several years ago, most farmers do not really understand that they do not give weight to fishes magically.
What really matters is how they are used.

Most farmers at different times either give too little during the culture period or too much over a few hours and hence don't achieve the required weight gain.
Too little will only guarantee fish survival, while too much will pollute the pond water.
Either method does not lead to desired fish growth.

So how should the feed be used to make the fishes gain weight?

For a fish to gain weight, it needs to eat more calories than its body burns at a specific, well orchestrated time; which must be repeated over the culture period

Naturally, a fish burns calories during swimming; daily.
So to achieve growth, daily feed intake must go beyond survival ration.
There is a big difference between sustainance ration and growth ration.
When most farmers feed their fishes daily, they stop feeding at the sustenance level.

Excellent growth cannot be achieved this way.
Some fish farmers have adopted the 'ad libitum' feeding.
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure" or "as you desire"; it is often shortened to "ad lib".

My question is, can economic growth of fish be attained through ad lib feeding ?
Ad libitum feeding in aquaculture can best be described as the feeding management through which the fishes are offered as much food as they want and not necessary that will make them grow.

It is important to note that what the fish wants is not what the farmer desires.
Basically, the farmer desires growth.
When there are not so many fishes in the pond, the fishes want to eat leisurely, even when they are hungry.

That is why the farmer must always push his agenda to the fish and not follow what the fish wants.
For a 10 grams fish to get to an appreciable weight at the end of 30 days, appreciable weight gain procedures must be adopted.

Weight gain process is gradual and for it to be successful, it must be sustained.
The way to achieve this is to daily push to the fish extra feed, beyond daily sustainable ration.

In simple terms, the fish must be fed until the belly expands.
This way, some feed will be used for metabolism, some will end up as fecal matter while the rest will be converted to body mass.
I strongly feel fish farmers should consider re-inventing the feeding wheel since the ultimate aim of what the farmer does is to achieve economic success.
In order to consider what I am proposing, I have decided to carefully consider the crude protein of the feed used and the feed conversion ratio of the feed.

Also I considered the average weight of the fish being fed and the total weight of the fishes in the pond.
I equally considered the daily weight gain of the fish.
All these must be considered in relation to the pond having good water.

Weight gain cannot be easily achieved without a good feed.
This really is a very critical factor.
A good feed with a balanced protein, fat, vitamin and carbohydrate must be sweet to taste and excellent to smell for the fishes.
It must be easy to digest and relatively low in fecal matter.
Some farmers use a combination of Palm kernel cake, wheat offal, rice bran and palm oil.
If that is all the fish sees as diet, the fish will accept, after all, half bread is better than biscuit.
Can such ingredient combination however give the desired FCR?
What daily weight gain can be achieved with this ?

I submit that a good ingredient combination will not only give a good FCR, it will also be lenient on pond water deterioration.
This really is where most feed manufacturers miss it.
Every feeding process either helps the farmer save or lose money.

I have seen some feed swallowed whole and excreted whole by the fish. In other words, 'All ingested, All excreted'.
In this situation, The farmer ends up wasting so much money on water pumping because of pond water pollution.

The strategy to adopt in order to achieve the desired fish weight is for the farmer to give a little more feed after every ration.
No fish can grow to the desired weight at the shortest desired time if all the fish is given is what will occupy its tummy and not what will occupy and add to body mass.

This method I know is subject to various interpretation and critism.
If the system however works for me, why not adopt it ?
After adoption, improve on it and the industry will be better for it.

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