Sorting of Catfish
Sorting catfish is one of the important things to do in the catfish business. Some can’t relate with the term while others might just go well with the word.
Sorting of catfish in a layman’s term or in a more simple term is the separation of bigger catfish from smaller catfish.
Sorting has to be done in catfish from time to time, let’s say in an interval of 3 weeks or a month interval.
Why do we sort catfish?
The answer to the question is not that hard at all, the reason for sorting catfish is to promote equal growth among catfish, fish of the same size would be on the same pond together, no big or bigger fish would be dominating the pond, all fish would be equal, not afraid of any big fish, so the catfish eat together, play together and grow together thereby reducing or eliminating cannibalism of catfish I.E that is, catfish eating another catfish.
Bear in mind that before three weeks, some catfish are already bigger than other catfish, hence you need to sort your catfish.
The bigger catfish or adult don’t really have problems but there are problems when they are growing up.
Sorting catfish is not for lazy farmers because it consumes time.
You need to empty the pond of fish, and pack all the fish in a bowl filled with water.
What most Nigerians used as a sorting board is a white marker board that is being used in schools and institutions.
Once you have the white marker board, or should I say marker board but it’s always white.
The market board is cut at two opposite edges, diagonally. Or should I say a small hole is put at the edge of the marker board, the hole facing each other diagonally?
The hole is where the fish would pass through while sorting.
The whiteboard is placed on two different buckets half-filled with water, while each bucket is placed under each hole.
The reason for using a whiteboard for sorting is because, catfish are black and for easy sorting, they would be placed on a whiteboard making it easy to spot and see the catfishes.
Don’t forget the step we have been following from above.
Once you placed the Fish in a bowl of water, you need a small net which could be plastic. An example is the plastic net used in the kitchen to remove water from rice.
You would use the net to be picking the catfish from the bowl you have placed them. You will use the net to pick them small and pour them onto the Centre of the whiteboard.
Let’s say you pick 20 catfish using the plastic net and placed them on the center of the whiteboard.
You will use your hand to start sorting,
The bigger catfish should go up the board while the smaller catfish would go down the board.
As the catfish goes up and down the board, they fell into the bucket half-filled with water placed under the board diagonally.
Then you bring in another batch of catfish from the bowl where you have all the catfish from the pond using the net and pour it on the whiteboard for sorting.
You do this till you have finished sorting all the fish.
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