Early rise in temperature this year has prompted Fisheries Department in South Punjab to persuade farmers to shift fish seeds from nurseries to the production ponds, as the fish growth season has begun a month earlier.
"Farmers should take advantage of the situation as the phenomenon has actually added exactly a month to the fish growth season, with the result fish will gain more weight to bring more profits", District Officer Fisheries Rao Shehryar said here on Wednesday.
The usual recommended time to begin shifting is from March 15, but February 15 seemed suitable due to an early rise in temperature. "Farmers who have not done so earlier must act now, for they would be losing five to seven gram weight increase a day in the fish in case of delay", he added.
Fish take food with the rise in temperature and the simple formula is that when farmers feel that heat is disturbing them, they should shift the fish seed into production ponds.
South Punjab is fast emerging as a hub of fish farming in the province, producing top quality protein food. Farmers usually go for species like Rohu, Mori, Thela, Grass Carp, Silver Carp etc.
Most of the farmers have depleted their fish farms through netting and have started putting fish seed called (poong) into the production ponds.
A healthy aquaculture with five to six feet water depth in each pond has been termed as best to get good production in terms of fish weight. However, most farmers keep water level at only three feet, which keeps the fish under stress, affecting their growth.
"Adding one feet to this minimum water level means adding another 200 grams to the fish weight, and so on," said Deputy Director Fisheries Multan region, Tufail Glureshi.
The department has published a booklet detailing combination of mixed populations of fish in the pond, and officials claim that this combination with natural feeding will result in good production.
Giving additional food to fish including rice polish, glutton, sunflower oil cake etc is better, apart from the natural teed which comprises tiny plants or microbiological creatures produced by putting fertiliser and cow dung in the pond.
Comments
Comments are closed.