February 5, 2010

India fish farmers switch to extruded feeds

The coastal districts of Andra Pradesh in India are now feeding their fish with extruded floating feeds, replacing the traditional method of feeding with the raw materials.

Farmers in the coastal towns of Bhimavaram, Gudivada, Kaikaluru, Akivedu are benefitting from extruded floating fish feed.
 

The farmers are willing to try the new methods of fish farming for fishes such as rohu, catla, pangasius, tilapia and sea bass, said S. Amalraaj, Indian Representative for extruder supplier Muyang company in Chennai.
 

Aquatic animals cannot digest starch effectively resulting in excessive excrement which leads to water pollution, while also causing physiological problems such as bloating and diarrhoea which negatively affect the growth of the fish.
 

The extrusion, which is a high temperature, high pressure and short duration process, can kill the germs and pathogens and makes the feed easily digestible.

In the traditional method of fish farming, a mixture of de-oiled cakes or rice bran is used for feeding the fishes. The mixture usually settles down at the pond bottom causing water pollution. There is also much wastage that could have been used for other applications. Since the rations are not formulated well, the growth of the fish takes longer with higher feed conversion ratios.

 
For traditional feeding about four to five kg of raw materials is required to produce one kg of fish. Extruded feed FCR can be reduced to 1.2.