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Fish is a delicious and nutritious protein source that is also rich in nutrients like ormega-3 fatty acids that improves our heart health and lowers our blood cholesterol level. Farmed fish has been playing an important role in meeting global protein demands.
Rising fish at home could open up many profitable opportunities today. Home raised fish could easily be sold for profit around the neighborhood or restaurants. So why not start your own home based fish farm? Here the author likes to state it from three aspects: site selection, pond construction and total cost.
1. Site Selection
Generally speaking, a good fish pond is of large area, deep water, abundant light, smooth water source and fertile water quality, which contributes to the growth of fish, the increase of output and production management. These conditions are listed as the following:
● Area and water depth. The size and depth of the pond have a very close relationship with the level of fish production. It is proved that the proper area of adult fish pond is 2666.66-6666.66 m2 and the water depth is preferably 2-3 meters. The area of the fingerling pond ca be below 3333.33 m2 with a water depth of 1.5 meters.
● Soil and sediment. Most of the fish ponds are excavated and built. Soil quality has a great impact on water quality. The best soil is black soil, followed by clay and sand. When there is a certain amount of silt in the pond, pond water tends to become fertile, which is good for fish farming and high yield. However, too much sludge will deteriorate water quality, and even cause the death of fish. Therefore, excess silt must be removed in time to maintain good water quality.
● Water source and water quality. Good water quality requires sufficient dissolved oxygen, moderate PH(ph 7-8.5), good water temperature(preferably 25-30°C) and abundant nutrient salts. The color of the fertile water quality is usually mungbean color, yellow-green and yellow-brown, and its transparency is of 25-30 cm. No toxic substances.
● The shape and direction of the pond. The shape of the pond is preferably rectangular. The length-to-width ratio is 2 to 3:1, and the length of the broad sides is 30 to 50 meters for easy management and fishing. The direction of the pond had better to be east-west, which is conducive to prolonging sunshine hours. There should not be high mountains and tall trees shaded around the pond.
● Layout and matching. The pond base should not be too narrow, and it should generally have a base surface of 2 meters or more. When building a supporting poultry barn, the requirements should be wider. At the same time, it is necessary to build a perfect irrigation and drainage system so that each fish pond can be independently drained to avoid interactive influence. The last but not least, power supply problems should be considered in order to use fish pond aerator.
2. Pond Construction Blueprint
1) First, you can think about the following questions to decide when to build the farm.
(a) When is the site easily accessible?
(b) When is the soil relatively dry, soft and easily workable?
(c) Will there be water available to fill the pond shortly after building it?
(d) Does it need to be prepared for stocking with fish at a particular time?
(e) Will there be labor, machinery and materials available at that time?
(f) Should I consider building the farm in stages, over several seasons?
2) Then, you can consider who will construct the fish farm. If the fish farm to be built is rather small, like less than 1 ha, and you have some experience, you can do by yourself.
3) If you have decided to construct your fish farm yourself, you have two choices of ways to proceed: Using manual labor only, or Using machinery in part and using manual labor in part.
The choice largely depends upon the size of the farm and on the availability of machinery. For some very small ponds like 1000 m2, they are usually built using manual labor only. Some simple equipments is also necessary like picks, hoes, shovels and wheelbarrows.
For some relatively large ponds, some large machinery will be helpful like bulldozers and wheel loaders. Normally, there are local contractor who owns the necessary equipment. You can talk with them at details.
4) Before starting construction, the most important thing is to make detailed plans and drawings. If the fish farm to be constructed is very small(less than 5000 m2), it is usually sufficient to mark the main dike boundaries and estimate the volumes of earth required. If the fish farm you will build is very large, It will be better to let an experienced aquaculture engineer and the project manager draw up the design plans. The possible ways to design a farm are endless, but certain designs are definitely more efficient and effective than others. Farm design is always an exciting period, but it takes a skilled and experienced aquaculture engineer to put together the best shrimp or fish farm design for a given site. It may look easy, but it is really a very involved and complicated process.
3. Overall Cost of Fish Farm Construction
The construction costs of fish farms vary considerably from place to place, depending particularly on such factors as the topography of the site, the type of the soil, the kind of materials, the fish farm layout, the way you choose to construct and the rate at which you do the work.
By estimating the cost of several plans, you can choose a cheaper one. A good solution to reduce the overall cost of the fish farm is to reduce the cost of its structures, for example by fitting the plan as well as possible to the local conditions, choosing a cheaper material and planning for smaller and better adapted structures.  When deciding which material to use, it is also important to take into consideration the useful life of the structure. As the useful life increases, the annual depreciation cost of the item decreases.
You also can choose to develop the farm stage-by-stage, so that earnings from early production can help to pay for later stages of construction. You even can buy an economical fish feed extruder to save cost on purchasing fish feed and ensure their nutrition.