1. INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS FISH FARMING?

(1) Fish farming is the raising of fish for personal use or profit. It is sometimes called fish culture.

WHY DO WE RAISE FISH?

(2) By raising fish we make better use of our land and our water.

(3) If you raise fish your family will have more to eat. The protein in fish will keep your family strong and healthy. Fish are tasty, like chicken, sheep and goat.

(4) If your family is not too big, you will have more fish than you need for food and you can sell them at the market.

(5) If your family is not too big, with more food and more money you and your family can live better.

(6) But fish farming is not easy. To raise fish needs as much hard work as to raise anything else, such as maize, rice, cassava or groundnuts.

(7) You will need to learn to do many things.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO RAISE FISH?

(8) You will need a piece of land where you can build a pond, or suitable water areas to build pens or keep cages;

you will need a supply of water,

baby fish to begin

and food for your fish.

(9) You will need time to build a pond and to care for it regularly.

(10) Pens and cages can also be used for raising fish from the time they are babies until they are big enough to eat or to sell.

(11) If you have a stream, river, lake or reservoir nearby, you may want to build a pen or a cage and raise fish there.

(12) If you already have a fish pond, you may want to put in a cage so that you can raise more fish than you could in the pond alone.

HOW DO WE BEGIN?

(13) If there is a fish culture station near where you live, you may be able to get help from an extension agent.

(14) If there is no extension agent you will need to learn many things by yourself.

(15) You will need to know the type of soil best for your pond, how to dig your pond,

how to fill it with water

and how to fertilize it.

(16) You will need to know what kind of fish to raise,

how to put the baby fish
into your pond,

what to feed your fish and
how to feed them.

(17) You will need to know how to take care of the pond,

how to drain it,

how to harvest the fish

and how to use your own baby fish to start again.

(18) This book will help you to begin good fish farming.

(19) Raising fish in pens and cages is somewhat different from raising fish in ponds. This manual can help you learn both.