Farming of African Catfish is what we do.
Using a state-of-the-art Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS), we take control of the entire life cycle of the Fish from Hatchery to Grow out. We use the “Dutch Strain” African Catfish which has been developed in the hatchery of Aquaculture ID in Someren, The Netherlands. This strain is the result of over 30 years of on-farm selection for the best-performing Fish. African Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus) is highly sought after for its meat quality and taste in many countries in Africa, Europa, and Asia.
Broodstock originated from wild strains from different regions in Africa and Israel. By selecting specific traits, such as stress resistance, improved growth capacity, and high fillet percentage, using data obtained from customers, it was possible to develop the “Dutch Strain”. Its docile character allows the Fish to quickly regain normal behavior after stressors such as grading.
PERFORMANCE OF DUTCH STRAIN AFRICAN CATFISH
Under optimal circumstances, the RAS facility is using :
Extruded Diet
Our fish show the following performance:
> Growth capacity In 6 months from
newly hatched fry to 1.5 kgs
> Fillet percentage 45%
> Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) 0.85
Hatchery
Our Hatchery manages the hatching and caring of fries in the early life stages of the Catfish life cycle. It is designed to ensure the production of high-quality and healthy fingerlings. This among other things includes ensuring consistent production.
Quality Broodstock selection
Having Broodstock with the best genetic strain, we can improve production characteristics such as growth rate, disease resistance, survival, color, etc., ensuring a healthy performance of our fingerlings.
Consistent Production
Broodstock can be induced to spawn their eggs on demand to meet the stocking density required for the next stage of production. This guarantees a consistent supply of Fish through all stages of Catfish production in our facility.
End-to-End Control of Production
Our Fingerlings grow from 0g to 10g under 60 days as a result of the optimal conditions provided and the high-quality feed used for our production. This gives the Catfish a good start in life to ensure they grow to meet our weight-gain target and production timeline.
Pre-grown out
Fingerlings are transferred from the hatchery to pre-grown tanks when they reach the 10g milestone. These tanks have the same optimal conditions as the hatchery tanks but provide more space for the hyperactive juveniles to run down their new track length tanks. The juveniles are kept in these tanks for 4 weeks which provides the much-needed space for fast growth.
Grown out
This is the final stage of the fish growth cycle. The juveniles are transferred one last time, into the grown-out tanks, to provide maximum space for rapid growth. Post juveniles are transferred at about 90g and are expected to gain 50g per week to reach the weight gain expectations. To calculate a good yield, we expect 20% of the Fish to fall on either side of the weight gain expectations, i.e. 10% will exceed this expectation and 10% will not reach this expectation.
Once the Fish get to 500g, the harvesting process begins. The harvested Fish is gutted, shaped to the popularly desired ‘circle-shape’, and dried. This is packed and sold within 24 hrs. of harvesting, which means our customers get the produce at its ‘freshest’.
The unharvested fish is left to grow up to 1.5 kg and then is sold fresh within 24 hours of gutting… again, giving our customers the ‘freshest’ Catfish in the UK.