The Fastest and Most Complete Milkfish Enlargement Strategy

Salah satu faktor terpenting pada proses budidaya ikan bandeng adalah proses pembesaran ikan bandeng. Pada umumnya, semua ikan bandeng kecil yang dirawat dengan tepat akan tumbuh menjadi ikan bandeng besar. Namun, ada beberapa cara pembesaran khusus yang bisa Bapak/Ibu terapkan untuk membantu proses budidaya.

Milkfish is a brackish water fish with high economic value because the demand is quite large and stable. It is not surprising that many novice cultivators start their fortune in cultivating through milkfish cultivation.

However, you need to know how to enlarge milkfish, how to raise milkfish so that they grow up quickly, and what types of food for milkfish to grow quickly. You can find out all this information through this article.

Milkfish Enlargement Tips

In simple terms, milkfish enlargement techniques are pond preparation, liming, fertilization, seed stocking, pond water quality management, milkfish feed management, to pest and disease control.

Meanwhile, to be able to ensure that the process of seed stocking, feed management, and pest control runs smoothly, you need to know the right techniques for managing pond water quality. In earthen ponds, ideally pond water has an acid-base/pH level of 7 with a dissolved oxygen level of 3.5 ppm.

The trick to ensuring that aquaculture pond water is always of the best quality is as follows:

1. Ensuring the smooth circulation of water in the inlet and outlet water channels.
2. Build a wheel over the pond to increase the oxygen level in the water.
3. Ensuring the water level is at a minimum level during the dry season and does not exceed the maximum level during the rainy season.

To support natural feeding, you can use saponin water which can trigger the growth of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton can be used as natural food for milkfish to grow up quickly. If the natural food has grown naturally, the milkfish is ready to be stocked.

Nutrition Needed Milkfish

After confirming the quality of the pond and water, you can use the next milkfish enlargement technique, which is to consider the nutrients in the milkfish feed so that they grow big quickly. 

Basically, fish feed is meant to increase the body weight of fish so they grow up quickly. However, many cultivators do not understand the composition of the fish feed needed so that the fish get the right nutrition to grow bigger faster.

The right amount of nutrients in milkfish feed is as follows:

1. Proteins: 20-60%.
2. Animal/vegetable fats: 4-8%.
3. Vitamins and minerals: 2-5%.
4. Carbs: 20-30%.

To meet carbohydrates for milkfish in the feed, usually the feed is made from crude fiber and extract ingredients without nitrogen. You can use wheat flour, corn, bran, or rice as a source of fish carbohydrates.

Both natural feed and artificial feed, you need to pay attention to the rules and nutritional requirements needed by milkfish so they grow up quickly. Here is another effective way to raise milkfish so that it grows big quickly, including:

1. When the milkfish is still in the seed/seed stage, let the seeds eat plankton when they enter the cultivation pond.
2. After 7 days, you can only give pellets that have been mashed/powdered.
3. Feed the milkfish in the morning and evening.
4. When the milkfish is 7.5-10 cm in size, you can only give coarse pellets/pellets that are not refined/pellets granule.

Types of Milkfish Food

There are two types of feed for milkfish, namely organic/natural feed and inorganic/manufactured feed. Both types of feed have their respective advantages. If you want to save on operational costs, then you can use organic/natural feed. However, manufactured inorganic/pellet feeds are far more effective than organic/natural feeds for the milkfish enlargement process.

1. Organic Feed

Generally, organic feed does not use chemicals. You can mix organic feed or spread it directly. 

The following is milkfish feed which includes organic feed, including:

• Water fleas contain 4% of protein, 0.5% of fat, and 0.67% of carbohydrates.
• Worms contain high levels of protein, fat and fiber.
• Plankton and phytoplankton have a protein content of 21% to 37%.
• Infusoria belongs to the protozoa which is made from mustard greens, papaya skin, or cabbage which has gone through a fermentation process for 4 to 7 days.

Even though it contains the nutrients needed by milkfish, organic feed is still not effective if you rely on it as food for milkfish so that it grows quickly, especially if you apply an intensive cultivation system. It will be more optimal if you use inorganic/manufactured feed.

2. Inorganic feed

Inorganic feed is considered to be more effective in accelerating the milkfish enlargement process because it contains the most complete nutrition, from protein, fat, to carbohydrates. Generally, this inorganic feed is in the form of pellets.

Giving fish pellets to milkfish cultivation, especially those that apply intensive cultivation techniques, is more effective in accelerating the increase in milkfish size, so that you can speed up cultivation and harvest time. This is because inorganic feed is produced by special factories that are able to balance the nutritional needs of milkfish. That is why inorganic feed is considered to have a more complete nutritional content than organic feed that is formulated alone. 

There are 2 types of inorganic feed that you can find on the market, namely floating and sinking pellet feed. As the name implies, this type of sinking pellet is a type of pellet that will immediately float/fall to the bottom of the pool when it is spread. Avoid spreading the pellets to sink too much because there is a risk that they will settle and trigger the appearance of ammonia.

Floating pellets are a type of pellet that will remain floating on the surface of the water. Usually, this type of floating pellet is used to improve and optimize the digestive system of fish so that the FCR value can be improved.

Apart from the types of pellets previously mentioned, there are other types of pellets in the form of flour that you can give as an alternative to milkfish feed according to their size. The following describes the size of the fish and the type of pellets:

• Larvae 1-4 weeks old: Flour pellets.
• Larvae aged 1-2 months: Pellets crumbles measuring 0.7-0.8 mm.
• Seeds are 2-5 cm in size: Pellet granules are 1 mm in size.
• Seeds 5-12 cm in size: Granular pellets are 2 mm in size.
• The fish enters the grow-out process: 3 mm granular pellets.
• Parent fish: Granular pellets 3-5 mm in size.