What Is Fish Feed?
Aquarium Fish Feed Is plant or animal material intended for consumption by pet fish kept in aquariums or ponds. Fish foods normally contain macronutrients, trace elements and vitamins necessary to keep captive fish in good health.
How Fish Feed Is Prepared?
The pellets or granules can be prepared by cooking with steam or by extrusion. Depending on the feeding requirements of fish, the pellets can be prepared to sink or float. Flakes are another form of dry food & a popular diet for aquarium fishes.
Fact About Aquafeeds:
The culture of aquatic animals, particularly fish culture has undergone dramatic worldwide growth in the last few years. The aquaculture production is the fastest growing food production industry in the world & approximately 50% of all fish consumed by humans is from aquaculture. Nutrition plays an essential role in improving animal productivity. Understanding the nutritional requirements and production of fish feed is essential to the development & sustainability of aquaculture as the industry has matured.
Feeds can be farm-made single section feeds like rice bran or mastered oil cake to commercial feeds. Kitchen wastes also are considered as one of the types of farm-made feeds produced economically for a small scale culture venture. Farm-made or on-farm feeds consist of one or more artificial and natural ingredients, produced for a particular farming activity & not for any commercial purpose. Combination of ingredients subjected to a few types of processing (simple mixing, grinding and cooking) done on-farm or in small processing plants are normally regarded as farm-made feeds & are often used in small-scale semi-intensive aquaculture practices. Commercial feeds are formulated and manufactured from a homogenous mixer of several ingredients, in different proportions that ensure precise quality targets in terms of size and texture, stability & nutritional composition at a highly competitive price. Commercial complete feeds are used generally in intensive and semi-intensive practices.
Types Aquafeeds (Fish):
Feeds can be formed either by steam processing, producing compact, pressure-pelleted (sinking) feeds or by extrusion, which produces expanded floating or buoyant feeds.
Floating fish feeds:
In general, floating feeds present numerous advantages over their sinking counterparts. Raw materials are propelled by screws along the barrel of the extruder device to cook the materials at 120-175 ºC for about 30 seconds. The homogenous cooked mixture is forced during a die at high pressure. The material develops because of the pressure difference. Floating feeds are more digestible as a product of the cooking process & the heat and pressure deactivate destructive enzymes as well. Increased starch gelatinization helps the feed to be further stable in water by disintegrating less quickly that gives enough time to the fish to take the meal completely. Also, the farmer can directly survey the feeding intensity of his fish & adjust feeding rates accordingly determining whether feeding rates are too low or too high is important in maximizing fish growth & feed use efficiency. Another side effect is that farmers can visually monitor the healthiest form of the reared fish as they come to the surface to take feed.
Sinking fish feeds:
Sinking feeds are solid feed pellets that submerged through the application. Bottom feeder shrimp, for example, prefer sinking pellets & will not accept a floating feed. The farmer cannot all the time near feeding rates correctly in relation to the biomass present in his pond & feeding whether too low or too high than the actual requirement. It causes a lower weight gain at a particular age & enlarges the culture period when feeding rate is low. In the other hand, overfeeding causes subsequent loss of feed supplied as well as deteriorating water feature that may result in a number of problems.
Maintaining Fish Feed Quality:
A variety of factors govern the quality & wholesomeness of aquafeeds. Feedingstuffs beginning, processing, handling & storage, as well as several other factors related to the market, can affect at different levels both quality and safety of feed. Feed quality can be ensured primarily by using good quality ingredients. Purchase of raw materials must confirm adequate quality, traceability, environmental sustainability & safety standards.
Feed manufactured in the factory has been regularly of desired quality, but that level of quality may have been falling by the time it reaches a farmer’s pond finally. Commercial fish feed is regularly purchased by large farms as bulk feed in truckloads & stored in outside bins. Finished feeds experience deteriorating varies through storage, which not only lowers their nutritive value below minimum specifications but also affects their palatability & appearance. All feed should be used within two months of manufacture & inspected regularly. During long storage, there may arise growth of mould, degradation of vitamin potency & fat rancidity. Unnecessary handling damages the feed bags & creates dust that is not usually consumed by fish and wasted. Pests (i.e. Mice, rats, roaches) must be restricted strictly in the storage, to avoid contamination. Proper storage is simple, but the main part to keep the products at a high quality.
Fish Feed Prices In Ghana:
Fish Feed Additive and Growth Booster GH₵ 120.00
Floating Fish Feed GH₵ 140.00
Catfish Fingerlings and Juveniles Feed GH₵ 60.00
Fish Feed Catfish GH₵ 230.00