This morning, I’m super excited to share some great news. Our first successful fish hatching in two years.
The tiny little creatures are out, and it’s incredible how these things that looked like particles will grow into big catfish.
I’d say the hatching process was about 80% successful, and that’s a fantastic result for a restart!
A Little Background
Fish farming, particularly hatching, has been a significant investment for my family, especially my brother, over the past five years.
But just when he thought he had mastered the process and they could finally go full-scale after investing millions in building a home hatchery, reality hit hard: there was still so much more to learn.
About two years ago, despite doing everything by the book (or so we thought), every hatching attempt failed. The losses were heartbreaking, gut-wrenching and discouraging. It felt like all our hard work and investment had gone to waste.
Finding the Problems
After several failures, my brother went back to the drawing board and started identifying the root causes. Here’s what he found:
1. Water Quality Issues
Although we had a good borehole water source, we didn’t realise that the water needed to be appropriately balanced in a certain way for the fish fries (baby fish) to survive, as they weren’t in their natural habitat.
2. Poor Broodstock Quality
At the time, we bought broodstock (parent fish) from other farmers at very high prices. Ideally, these fish should be mature, let's say at least a year old, for their eggs and sperm sacs to be viable.
However, for profit reasons, many sellers used fatty feeds to speed growth and sold the fish within four to six months. This severely affected our hatching success.
3. Power Supply Challenges
As expected, the Niaja factor happened to us 😅. Constant power outages made the hatching process difficult because, at that early stage, they need a 2424-hour water supply to avoid water pollution and to provide their tiny gills with good oxygen. We soon realised we needed a bigger generator to power our 2-horsepower pumping machine consistently.
The Turning Point
Eventually, we had to shut down the business completely to fix these problems. It was a challenging and depressing time for my family, but I learned an important lesson: every failure carries the seed of the next success story.
Over the last two years, my brother hasn’t given up. Instead, he dedicated himself to learning and improving:
He toured different parts of Nigeria to gain practical experience in hatching and raising fish under varying weather and water conditions.
He studied water works and learned how to use probiotics to sustain fish for months without frequently changing their water. He also learned to build water treatment plants.
He invested in a bigger generator and built a mini water treatment plant.
Most importantly, he started raising his own broodstock (male and female) to ensure quality and control over the hatching process.
A New Chapter Begins
After two years of setbacks, research, and preparation, he finally decided to restart the process, using his own broodstock and improved systems.
And guess what? The first hatching attempt after the long break was 80% successful.
The journey isn’t over; it has just begun because the fries (baby fishes) are still in their early, delicate stage. However, we remain optimistic, cautious, and grateful.
Fingers crossed 🤞 that this marks the beginning of a new, sustainable chapter for our family’s fish farming venture.
Thank you so much for reading
In my next post, I’ll share more about the production process and what we’ve learned along the way.
Cheers to growth, resilience, and new beginnings. Happy midweek.