I will like by stating first that the same way it is for man, that is the same way it is for your catfish. Humans don’t give birth to babies and start feeding them solid or had food because you feel they have mouths like yours, no, what do you do? You start them up with food that is light in texture and packed with nutrients that will help them grow and develop.
Feeding your catfish with the right size of fish will help them develop properly because each stage of the catfish’s age and size of feed is packed with nutrients that are good to help it develop properly at that stage.
If the feed is too small for a large fish, they’ll be needing a lot of feeding before they will be satisfied and that will be costing more to feed them, also, they might not be getting the right nutrient to develop properly further. In the reverse case, if you’re feeding a small fish large size of feed above their league, they may not be eating or struggling to eat the food, this can cause them to become malnourished.
Type of Catfish Feeds
There are two types of catfish feeds, one is the floating type while the other is the sinking type of catfish fish. The sinking type of catfish feeds is usually bigger and longer in size and sinks to the bottom of the pond when they are thrown into the fish pond, while the floating catfish feeds are much smaller and will usually stay afloat on the surface of the pond water.
Every catfish farmer knows best what type of feed works best for them so I can’t recommend any as the best. You do you and what works best for you.
Feed Size
We have different catfish feed sizes, based on experience and what I have seen in the market we have the following sizes:
1.5mm,1.8mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 9mm, and 10mm (please note that there may be other sizes that may exist that I didn’t mention on this list because I haven’t seen then).
One rule of thumb you should be aware of is that the bigger the catfish, the bigger the feed size of feed they’ll be eating. It’s as simple as that.
The descriptions below can help you in choosing the size of feed you should be feeding your catfishes based on their stage and weight, bear in mind I am using the floating catfish feed in my descriptions, remember to do what works for you, it isn’t a cast in stone recommendation:
Fingerlings (3 to 4 grams) – 1.5mm
Post- Fingerlings (4 to 6 grams) – 1.8mm
Juvenile (6 to 10 grams) – 2mm
Post-Juvenile (10 to 50 grams) – 2mm
Post-Juvenile (50 to 150 grams) – 2mm
Post-Juvenile (150 to 300 grams) – 2mm
Post-Juvenile (300 to 400 grams) – 3mm
Post-Juvenile (400 to 600 grams) – 4mm
Post-Juvenile (600 to 1kg) – 6mm
By the time your catfish gets to 1kg in weight and bigger, you can introduce them to 8mm feed size, by the time they hit the 3kg weight you can start giving them the 10mm catfish size.
Always remember to try out the feeds and see how they react to it, if there are finding it difficult to swallow it, it means the catfish feed is probably too big for them and that is why they’re not eating it, consider reducing the size and then watch again.
Note: The cleanliness of your water can also affect the eating habit of your catfish, so make sure the water in the pond stays relatively clean.
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