Fish farming business is interesting, lucrative but risky – Yusuf

“Catfish is one of the oldest and most reared species found in all continents except Antarctica.

“Its ability to easily adapt to its new environment proves its widespread worldwide except in places of extreme temperature.”

That was the explanation of Mr. Olajide Yusuf, one of the major fish farmers in Lagos.

Yusuf has been in the business since 2004.

He shared with LagosStreetJournal the intricacies and the logistics involved in fish farming business.

According to him, rearing catfish is interesting while the business is lucrative but the it involves so many risks.

Yusuf explained that he usually purchases the fishes at the fingerling stage and they are fed with small floating pellets once a day for some months before they are sorted out according to size into different ponds.

“These fishes at the post fingerling stage are then fed with floating feed twice daily as their growth demands more feed,” he explained.

He continued: “The attitude of catfish is that they don’t survive in dirty water. And that is one of the risks in the business as you need to keep changing their water.

“I usually drain the water morning and evening the same way I feed them based on their growth.”

Running an underground drainage pond, he enlightened that he uses a 6 inches pipe to mix the fishes with the intention of washing away their feces and urine in the pond through drainage.

According to him, catfish usually stay below the pond without playing around when the water is dirty and frequently open their month above the water when hungry.

Speaking from experience, he said a farmer will likely experience high death rate as a result of dirty water or fish pest during hunger.

He, therefore, advised that fish farmers must cultivate the habit of cleanliness and build an appropriate drainage passage in their pond to the canal to avoid polluting the environment.