Nilotica Fish Culture

A brief introduction

Nilotica was brought to Bangladesh from Thailand at 1974. Our environment and climate both are very much well for culturing Nilotica fish. At the current time, people in our country found great profit in culturing Nilotica, as a result Nilotica is extensively cultured in Bangladesh.

Red Nilotica

Little life cycle of Nilotica

The Nilotica fish hatches babies in quite a different process. Firstly the fishes like to hatch the babies inside their mouth and then release it in the water. Female fishers take the responsibility to look after the eggs and fries. After the process of fertilization, the female fish likes to keep the fish insider her mouth. So naturally eggs hatch firstly in the mouth and then it spreads it in the pond water. At the time of keeping the eggs inside the mouth the female fish never takes any food. Eggs take the period of 8-10 days to hatch inside the mouth of the female fish. When these small fish are about 7-8 mm in length , the female fish release and spread the babies in the water. Amazingly even after the release the female fish takes care of her babies. The babies move about in shoals. But if there is some danger, the mother fish takes them into her mouth. Within 10 days, the mother fish completely leaves them.

10 Great Qualities of the fish

• This fish can be cultured within a very short time. And it is possible to sell the fishes in the market within 2-3 months of culture. 
• We can culture fish in relatively shallow water that means less deep water like in ponds, seasonal ponds, marshy lands paddy lands and so on.
• Fish fries can be found easily.
• They like to eat all kinds of foods.
• Within a interval of three months they become 200-300 grams.
• They taste very delicious by nature.
• Eggs are laid in a year 3-4 times.
• We can culture them in our pond two times in a single year.
• Their production cost is relatively very less.

Selection of Pond

We can culture Nilotica fish in pond conquering land of 5 decimal or less where water remains around 6 months a year. It is better to keep the depth of the pond within one metre and a half.

Preparation of pond

We should immediately manage to repair the banks when they are broken. They should have slopes inside. When the bottom of the pond is rough, then we should level it. Clay soil more than 30 cm. thick should be remoces. Aquatic weeds (such as- Kalmi Helencha) should be removed from the pond.

Destruction of Voracious Fishes

Boal, shol, Taki, Gazar etc. are considered as voracious fishes in Bangladesh. We should kill them immediately by drying up the pond and utilizing medicines like Rotanon or photoxin. Then they should be removed from the pond.

Application of lime

After the removal of voracious fish, we should mix up lime measuring 1 kg. per decimal. In the former night, we must mix the lime with water and cool down. They it can be spread over the water.

Application of fertilizer

Seven days after the application of lime, organic manure (cow-dung, guano) and the chemical fertilizer have to be used. Eight to ten kg. cow-dung should be used per decimal. Then 100 grams TSP and 200 grams Urea are to be applied per decimal. The chemical fertilizers should be mixed and spread over the water of the pond. Within 5-7 days of waiting after the manure and fertilizer mixing application, if the water color becomes greenish, then its the time to stock the fries.

Procurement of fries

It is better to stock fish fries that is around 5-7 cm. long. The mortality rates is very low when the size of the fries are bigger. We can find fish fries available in govt. and non-govt. farms. About 32-35 fish fries can be released  per decimal water.

Stocking of fish fries

We know that the temperature of all water bodies are not the same. If the fish fries are brought in a poly-bag, then it is better to keep that in the pond. We should open the poly bag cover at first then start inserting some water from the poly-bags to make the water temperature at a same/ average degree. Otherwise, the fish fries are likely to die owing to temperature variations. And after making all the process clear if the fries are released then, there is no problem at all!

Application of pond

We know that Nilotica is an omnivorous fish. A mixture of 60% rice bran, 25% oil cake & 15% duck weed is necessary to be given in the pond to meet the food demand of the fish. Food can be given to a particular and specified place, which helps to decrease wastage amount. We know that, Nilotica is here to eat all kinds of food provided. This food can be divided and given some at the morning time and some at the evening.

Fertilization application

One hundred and fifty (150 grams) grams of cow-dung is likely to be applied in the pond to increase the amount of natural food present there. It indicates shortage of food in the pond water, when the water is clean. We must apply 100 grams Urea and 50 grams TSP every ten days per decimal. When we can notice that the water of the pond turned into greenish or brownish we need to be convinced that the food in the water is enough.

Examining growth of fish

We should pay attention towards the natural fish & supplementary food, if the growth rate of the fish is not satisfactory. It should be examined by dragging nets once a month.

Fish catching

Within 2-3 months which fishes weigh around 200-300 grams, the bigger fishes are to be caught in order to make a better environment for the young fish fries to breed.

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