Raising your own baby fish in pens

114. You can build a small pen in a corner of your big pen and raise your own baby fish there. You can also use a small pen like this to keep the baby fish that you catch when you harvest.

Use small pens

115. The small pen should be about 2 by 2 metres and at least 50 centimetres deep. Build the small pen just as you built your large pen.

116. However, the material that you use for the fence of a small pen should have smaller openings to keep in the baby fish. So, be sure to use material with openings of 0.5 by 0.5 centimetres.

Water flow

117. Material with such small openings will get dirty more quickly. You must be sure to clean it often enough so that fresh water can flow into the small pen.

118. You can put up to 500 baby fish 1 to 2 centimetres long in a small pen this size. However, do not put in more than you need to use or sell.

Note
If you have more baby fish that you can use or sell you can dry them in the sun. After you have dried the baby fish, grind or pound them and mix them with crushed cottonseed, groundnut cake or rice bran to feed to your big fish, your poultry or your pigs. You can also use the baby fish to fertilize your farm garden.

119. Feed your baby fish two or three times each day just as you do with your big fish. You can give them

· termites
· rice bran
· cottonseed or groundnut cake.

Food for baby fish

120. Feed your baby fish carefully. Break their food into very small pieces and sprinkle it little by little on the surface of the water. Watch very carefully that they eat well and stop giving them food as soon as they stop eating.

Sprinkle food

121. With a small pen, it is important to give the baby fish only what they can eat and no more. Uneaten food on the bottom of a small pen is very bad for baby fish.

122. In 30 to 40 days the baby fish will grow to 8 to 10 centimetres long and you can let them into the big pen. To do this open a part of the fence. However, do not take out the posts.

Let out the baby fish

123. The baby fish can then swim into the big pen through the open fence. Later, when you need to raise more baby fish or keep small fish you have caught, you can use the small pen again.