Photos’ credit: Marcelin Ngatcham (Cameroon) Description: Marcelin Ngatcham and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted pictures cover a technical visit to a fish feed mill which is located at Ediki (South West) and managed by Common Initiative Group (CIG). The visit explores whether technical problems do exit in the operation. The visit was accompanied by a representative of the South West Development Authority (SOWEDA) which is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and was created in 1987 with the mission to promote and ensure the integrated rural development of the South West region. SOWEDA has carried out several projects among which is the Livestock and Fisheries Development Project whose goal was to reduce the poverty of the inhabitants of the region and improve on the livelihood of beneficiaries.
Photo credit: Mercy Maiyo
(Kenya)
Description: Mercy Maiyo and Abdel Rahman El
Gamal (Founder of the website)
The photos show the
lining process in fish ponds located in Nairobi County (Kenya). The pond shown
in the picture is 150 m2. The lining is a valid approach whenever
the pond soil is not naturally holding water. However, the economics of such
lining should be considered. That is why the durability of the lining is very
important. In general, the thickness of
the liner is 0.5 mm. The pond shown in the picture is stocked with tilapia.
Video credit: Andria Melissa Ochoa Rodas (Guatemala) Description: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the video channel)
This short video clip was filmed in the facility affiliated to the University of Miami (USA).
Based on its successful culture in first Taiwan and then
after in various Asian countries, cobia (Rachycentron canadum)
is believed to be a promising aquaculture candidate for tropical and
subtropical marine fish aquaculture in the world. This warm-water marine
species has been placed among the best aquaculture candidate species in the
world.
The University of Miami (USA) has conducted significant research at an experimental hatchery targeting to develop and optimize advanced technology to demonstrate the viability of raising hatchery-reared cobia in the USA. It may worth mentioning that earlier attempts to culture cobia in the United States go back to 1970s using eggs collected from the wild. Afterwards and in the late 1990s, the first successful spawns were produced from broodstock in captivity. https://youtu.be/L3rvouTxvzw
Photo credit: Madalitso Magombo (Malawi) Description: Madalitso Magombo and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture shows an integrated farm of fish and
vegetables as well as bananas (horticulture) that does exist in Zomba, Malawi and
run by one of the fish farmers in the area.
The integrated
aquaculture-agriculture (IAA) technology was introduced to Malawi in 1986 as a
means to enhancing household food security, income and environmental
sustainability. As shown in the inserted picture, the agricultural crops
(vegetables and banana) benefit from the fish pond water with its load
of nutrients and hence enhancing the plant growth and reduce their need for
external fertilizers. On the other hand, the residues of the vegetables are
also fed to the fish or used as manure representing an environmentally way of
recycling.
Photo credit: Andria Melissa Ochoa Rodas (Guatemala) Description: Andria Melissa Ochoa Rodas and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture shows an earthen pond while prepared
for tilapia culture. The pond is in Escuintla which is located in south central Guatemala.
As shown in the picture, heavy machinery are used in the preparation process
that ultimately targets the lining of the pond with proper liner sheets of
12×20 m each.
Unlike shrimp farming in Guatemala which mainly targets the
international markets, the internal consumption is the main target of tilapia
aquaculture.
According to FAO, the interest in tilapia culture in
Guatemala began in 2004, upon the construction
of the Sabana Grande training and fish breeding station.
As reported in FAO statistics,
total fish produced from Guatemala aquaculture amounted about 26,000 tons in
2017; out of which close to 10,000 tons belonged to tilapia.
The strains of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis
niloticus) have been introduced into Guatemala from Mexico and USA over the
years 2003 and 2004.
Video credit: Mohamed Atta (Egypt) – Review:
Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the video channel)
This video has been filmed in a koi hatchery in Vietnam.
The focus of this short video is to share how the ovulation
looks like in Koi carp which will be almost the same in most fish species. It
should be emphasized that the spotting of ovulation time is critical regarding
the subsequent phases including fertilization till hatching bearing in mind
that if ovulated eggs are not stripped within specific period, eggs turn
overripe and hence cannot be fertilized.
The video shows two female undergoing the stripping process.
The first females seems not ovulating yet and she may ovulate shortly after as
batch of eggs obtained was unnoticed. On the other hand, the second female was
ovulating as the stripping went easy and eggs are flowing freely uninterrupted.
There are several observations which could be
mentioned here including that the handled females were not anesthetized
probably because of their relative to medium sizes. Instead, eyes are covered
and caudal peduncle that proved to calm the fish.
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture
shows an excessive crowding of tilapia fry. The crowding condition is not
unique and is commonly witnessed in hatcheries and done for easy scooping and bagging.
It is commonly believed that because of the short crowding period, no harm to handled
fish is expected. However, this assumption cannot be true in all situations.
Let us agree that scooping would require a level of crowding but this should
consider some precautions. Local oxygenation will be helpful to avoid the drop
of oxygen within such crowded fish mass. Another scenario is portioning the
total number of the hapa into batches and hence the crowding of a batch enables
the scooping in much shorter time with less handling harm.
Photo credit: Marcel Jean Adavelo
(Madagascar) – Review: Marcel Jean
Adavelo and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture
shows the construction of a small fish pond in Madagascar. Typically, such
small-size ponds do not justify the use of machinery. Added to that, the farmer
usually does not have the cash needed for the construction. Instead, members of
the community including relatives and neighbors help the pond owner in the
construction at no cost except what is offered by the farmer of food –and alcohol-
during the work until the completion of the pond. As shown in the picture, the
tools used in the construction are made from locally available materials.
Photo credit: Suzan Alfred and Mekki Zakaria (Sudan) – Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture shows a batch of fish ready for the
market. The traditional basket has mainly two fish groups; soles and green
tilapia (Tilapia zillii).
Whether caught from natural resources such as lakes (like the attached picture) or accidently found in fish pond, Tilapia zillii with its small size attain much higher price than other tilapias of much larger size. Unlike mouth brooder tilapia, T. zillii is are substrate spawners and mature at earlier age of around 3 months with small sizes. The high consumer preference is because the relatively large egg roe that fills most of the body cavity. Added to that, the taste of its flesh is usually appreciated especially when caught from saline waters.
In fish ponds and because of the reproduction behavior of green tilapia, the species is highly undesirable as their reproduction could disturb the management of fish ponds. Regardless the control measures taken in fish ponds to prevent the entry of tiny organisms, the fertilized eggs of T. zillii with its small size may find its way to fish ponds where they hatch, grow and interfere with the pond management.
