Supplementary Feeding

• In the profitable fish farming, there is a need for regular supply of sustained and balanced food for fish growth.
• To ensure sustained growth, artificial food has to be supplemented at times of natural food scarcity in ponds.
• The typical supplementary foods are rice bran, groundnut oil cake, bread crumbs, fish meal, maize power, broken rice, soyabean cake, peanut cake, corn meal, cottonseed oil cake, oats, barley, potatoes, coconut cake, sweet potatoes, guinea grass, napier grass, wheat, silkworm pupae, left over animal feeds and animal manures.
• The kind of extra food depends on the type of fish. For example: tilapia eats almost anything including all types of supplementary foods.
• The silver carp eat only phytoplankton, even at the marketable size.

Supplementary feeds given to different cultivated fishes of diverse feeding habits are:

1)    Vegetable feeds such as leaves, grasses tubers and roots starches.

2)    Oil cakes such as mustard, groundnut, til, coconut etc., and other residues.

3)    Grain fodders like wheat bran, rice, lupine, soyabean, maize, barely etc.

4)    Feeds of animals origin such as fish flour, fish meal, fresh meat from warm blooded animals blood, poultry eggs, shrimps, crabs,  mussels, snails etc.,

5)    Additives such as vitamins and minerals.

The selection of supplementary feed depends on number of factors such as:

1)    Ready acceptability to fish.

2)    Easy digestibility.

3)    High conversion value.

4)    Easy transportation.

5)    Abundant availability.

6)    Ready acceptability by the fish and its conversion ratio and the involved costs are the most important.

7)    It should be a balanced one with adequate protein, fat, carbohydrate, mineral and vitamin contents.

The rate of food conversion depends on:

1)    Quality of supplementary feed.

2)    Stocking density of fish.

3)    Size and age of the fish stock.

4)    Environmental factors such as temperature, oxygen tension, water etc.

5)    The method of feeding (the spreading and frequency of distribution etc.)