How's Tilipia Fish Farming Business?

Tilapia Fish Farming Business

Here are my experiences I share from Tilapia Farming Business

Tilapia Fingerlings

Tilapia fish is one of the in demand never goes out of style food staple of the Filipinos, its healthy, meaty and it has large few bones which is easily seen and remove, you can also fry its thick skin to make Tilipia skin chicharon(crackers). And culturing it is easy, as its resilient and not a picky eater. You just harvest them in 3 to 4 months, that makes it passive income for me, but you have to fix your system first which is hard to master.


Pond Preparation

This is the first and most important step, fail here and fail on the rest 3 months. You can visit other site like this one; EntrePinoys for a detailed step on preparing a fish pond for tilapia. Its basically to prepare the proper nutrients and removal of predator like catfish that will eat your small tilapia fingerlings. Don't have a fishpond? try doing a small scale backyard pond or by using drum container for starters, maybe you get the hang of it and purchase yourself a fishpond in the province later on, farm/fishpond is cheaper per square meter and to own than regular residential land, it also has cheap real estate tax. So its doable if you really want to own a fishpond, your brand new car might be even expensive. Fish farming is exciting at least for me, you have to find out how you can grow your fish, inventing your own system to make it easier and cheaper so it will put money on your pocket as passive income later on.

Get your Tilapia Fingerlings

You can choose what type of Tilapia fingerlings you want to use, regular but cheaper breed or a hybrid ones that grows faster and larger. The regular cost somewhere about P0.25** centavos each while the hybrid cost more, it will be placed on a oxygen and water filled plastic bag about 5,000 to 4,000 Tilapia fingerlings contains one bag, here is a map where I get my fingerlings;


GOZUM's Tilapia fingerlings, Regular Breed
Sta. Monica, Pampanga

View Larger Map


Apung Libring's Tilapia fingerlings, Hybrid
Sta. Catalina, Pampanga

View Larger Map

Release it in your pond

After you got your fingerlings bag, go to your pond as soon as possible, because the fingerlings gets weaker after a few hours because of oxygen deprivation. Place the bag in the pond for a several minutes but don't open or release them from the bag so the water from the bag will adjust to the same water temperature, so the fingerlings won't be surprised with the sudden temperature during release.

This is where your branch of strategy differs, some will just release all the fingerlings to the pond and fed for themselves naturally with plankton, bacteria and weeds that grows on it during preparation period, some farmer put them first on isolated net(kulambo) on the pond so they can be fed easily and properly with fry mesh feeds.

Consult the webpage link provided on how many fingerlings can be stock on your fish pond, it depends on the size and depth, too much fingerlings might deprive them of oxygen and will result to smaller growth of Tilapia.

Feeding your Tilapia

There are 3 kinds of feeding, Intensive, Semi and Natural feeding;

Intensive feeding is you go all out purchasing sack of feeds, this is an expensive method but the growth of Tilapia will be faster and their weight will be heavier. It will pollute the water also easily so you need to clean it when it gets dirty by pumping out water with a water pump. And pumping in water with a water source so you can replenish oxygen in the pond, its expensive but of course you get more results during harvest.

Natural feeding is you just let them feed on natural plankton and kangkong or with duckweeds that grows on the pond, this is the cheapest method as it will give you less operating expenditure but of course growth and weight will be lesser as a result is marginal income when you sell your fishes. And also you could only put less fingerlings because the fish is dependent on oxygen, the more fish you put on the pond the smaller they become. Some fish folks use this method if you are in the danger season like rainy season and there is risk of flood.

Semi feeding is in between Intensive and Natural feeding.

Consult the webpage link provided on how much you need to feed your Tilapia based on their age or weight.

Kang kong

Duckweeds

Problems might Arise

Typhoon can flood your fishpond, losing almost all your Tilipia stock, this is depending on your location, its up to you how you fix this problem like putting nets or avoid rainy season.

Drought can make your pond at low water level, this could make them overcrowded, as a result oxygen deprivation which could stun their growth and worse fish kills. You must pump more water on it.

Looters can get your stocks during night time if your fishpond is not in a secure place especially when you are nearing your harvest season and your Tilapia is big enough. They could visit your pond every night and before you know it, you are harvesting mud. Also make sure you have a trusted caretaker.

Harvesting

After 3 to 4 months, you can harvest the Tilapia fish by draining the pond using a water pump or getting a huge harvest net. Draining the pond will take time and more expensive but you are sure you will get all the fishes unlike using a harvest net alone. Its also up to your entrepreneur idea or innovation on how you will run/harvest your fishpond efficiently, that is your business secret.

Selling your Tilapia Fish

Many fish folks think this is the hardest part, they think its more easier to grow fish than to sell it, for me this is the easiest part. Tilapia is a Filipino favorite, from ulam(meals) to pulutan(snacks). There are many types on how to sell your fish;

First is through contractors, basically they will contract you your fishpond, then they are the ones to harvest it at their cost, they will pay you an estimate price contract of the whole harvest or weight of fishes then your job is done, all you do is count the money. But because they are the middle man, they need to profit as well so you get less income in the process but its more passive income. Its hard to get contractors not unless you have a well know reputation, you have to sell your fish cheap, you are at their mercy for pricing, but as long as you would gain income and not loss, then its ok. Example is you have a 100 square meter of fishpond, they will estimate its content and fish sizes by dropping a net, then give you a price like P30,000 its all yours and they will take care of everything or sometimes they need to count and weight all the fish and buy it for you per kilo like P35 or P30 per kilo. The price is reduced because they will bear the harvest expense.

Second method is you contact a fish truck or fish tricycle and you will sell your fishes to them, your income would be higher but you will bear the harvest cost. They will sell it to the market also so the cheaper the price they get it to you the more income they will get, at this rate they will buy it to you at P40 to P45 per kilo.

Third is, you sell them directly to market, if you have a vehicle, go straight to the market early at dawn, and sell it directly to the market stalls sometimes there is a system in the market that you cannot sell it directly to the stalls but a collector, whatever the system is, you talk to the one in charge and sell your fishes, they would buy it at probably P50 to P55 per kilo. It depends on how big your fishes are, and if you are selling it, it must be fresh straight from harvest, some still moving. Probably market vendors would sell it as P80 to P100 per kilo on the consumers depending on the season like sometimes if there is a previous typhoon, fish value increases in the market.

Fourth is, which I have learned, because the contractors don't want to buy my fishes at an agreed price, they told me to sell it myself, which... Is a good idea, this is one of my business secrets I will share.

Basically you will need a bike with sidecar, and two trusted person selling the fishes, the other will pedal the other will scale and remove the gut of fishes when someone buys it, you will sell them directly to the consumers houses early in the morning, you just put a large sign Tilapia P70/kilo in from of the sidecar and people will buy it. Since there is no middle man like contractors and market vendors, you can sell them at a lower price than the market, like P70 or P75 per kilo. People will buy it, why not its cheaper than the ones in the market, they don't need to go to the market themselves since its already being cater in front of them and its fresh, straight from harvest, the ones in the market would have probably swarmed by flies or so. So if that's it but if you don't want to go to this kind of troublesome things then stick to the first method.

Prices vary depending on season, so the figures above are just examples and estimates, like during rainy season or after a typhoon, fish prices in the market will surge, because there is lack of supply, this is one thing you should also consider when selling your fishes. Law of Supply and Demand applies.

Juan Tamad Sayings:

You need to learn and adapt your strategy based on your location, the most efficient the better, that is going to be your business secret that you will rely on, its the missing link from being a success to failure, but of course, there will be lots of failure in the journey, trial and error and experimenting, its up to you how you do it. By automating or creating system for your fishpond, the more it becomes a passive income. In the world of information technology, you can adapt them for your own use, an example is what you are reading now enables you to have an insight what is going on.