New fish farmers struggle to choose between earth concrete or tarpaulin pond. We will show you how to choose using a personal experience.
When it comes to choosing the type of pond to go for, new farmers get confused as to the best option.
Ask 5 farmers and you will get 5 varying opinions. In this article, we will look at the reasons to consider before choosing a pond. At the end, you will be better equipped to make your decision.
Starting out as a fish farmer, I didn't know if I should rent an earth pond or construct a tarpulin one. Of course, having an earth pond should be the right thing to do because it is the natural habitat of an aquatic animal and they would thrive better. So I went consulting. I spoke with a farmer who has an earth pond. He told me all I needed to know and I was ready to pay for it. Unfortunately I couldn't get one to rent on their farm because they were all booked.
Just as I was pondering on my next line of action, a thought occured to me. The pond I wanted to rent is quite a distance from my house. Will I have been able to make the journey, morning and evening to feed my fish? While I was still trying to convince myself I thought about security.
Is it possible that other farmers might steal from my pond when I wasn't around?
How about managing the pond and sorting the fish?
I didn't even consider the major issue of my fish swimming away when there is a high tide. A problem I have been told quite a number of earth pond farmers face.
By the time, I got to the last point, I realised that earth pond at that moment wasn't the best choice for me.
Do you now understand what you need to consider before choosing earth, tarpaulin or concrete pond?
In my opinion, it is a matter of choice; convenience, safety of the fish, feeding and sorting.
Using an earth pond wasn't convenient for me. I wanted to monitor my fish and apply all that I had learnt about fish farming and I figured I could only do that if I had the pond close to me and if they are in a container instead of in the ground.
On the other hand though, managing the tarpaulin pond was a little bit stressful. Depending on the age of the fish, I had to change water in the pond every other day. After some time, it became an every day affair.
I also noticed that the fish didn't grow as much as the ones in the earth ponds. I think it had to do with my poor farming skills as opposed to rearing fish in tarpulin.
That was my experience with tarpulin pond fish farming.
Well, which do you prefer? Earth, tarpulin or concrete? Can you give our budding farmers advise on what to use? Head on over to our Facebook Page to leave your comments.
Remember that if you live in Delta State, Nigeria and own a fish pond, you can contact us for your fish feed. We are quite affordable.
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