Composition and Types of Food for Snakehead Fish to Grow Big Fast

Snakehead fish is classified as a type of fish that has the potential to generate maximum profit if Cultivator Friends are diligent in caring for it. The trick to making snakehead fish high-priced is to pay attention to snakehead fish food.

The cost of cultivating snakehead fish is cheaper than cultivating catfish and tilapia but the selling price is actually higher. Snakehead fish do not need to eat a lot to be of high value, but the type of snakehead fish feed must be rich in nutrients. The following is a more complete explanation of snakehead fish food and how to feed snakehead fish.

Snakehead Fish Food to Grow Big Fast 

Both snakehead fish that can be consumed and snakehead fish that are used as ornamental fish, these two types of fish will reap the maximum profit as long as you really pay attention to how to feed them.

If the snakehead fish can be consumed, you need to be careful about feeding the snakehead fish so that it grows quickly with a proportional body weight.

Whereas for snakehead fish that are kept as pets because of a hobby or used as ornamental fish, it is necessary to pay attention to feeding the snakehead fish so that the fish produce a solid-looking color with a more assertive and fierce-looking motif to increase the resale price of the snakehead fish. 

In addition, snakehead fish needs protein as good nutrition to help the snakehead fish grow so that it is large with normal weight. The following are types of snakehead fish food.

1. Factory Made Pellets

The first type of snakehead fish food is fish pellets which are easy to find in fish shops. Artificial pellets for snakehead fish must contain more than 30 percent protein consisting of blood meal, fish meal, shrimp heads, tofu dregs, and much more.

Even if fish pellets already contain more than 30 percent protein, you still need to provide other snakehead fish feeds that are rich in protein so that protein intake is more optimal. 

The reason is, snakehead fish requires feed that is rich in protein derived from animals. The digestive system of snakehead fish is intended to absorb the essence of food that comes from animals.

If the snakehead fish that is cultivated is caught directly from swamps or rivers, you should not immediately give snakehead fish food in the form of pellets because the fish won't want to eat it.

2. Silkworms

Silk worms or tubifex Sp is a snakehead fish feed which is rich in protein. It is better if snakehead fish seeds are routinely fed with silk worms so that they grow big quickly.

Giving snakehead fish seeds with factory-made pellets can indeed make the bodies of these fish puppies grow quickly, even so the size of the size will be much different from the seeds that are fed silk worms.

If the fingerlings are diligently given silk worm feed, their weight can be 4 to 5 times greater than the snakehead fish seeds that are given snakehead fish food in the form of artificial pellets.

However, you need to provide more snakehead fish food costs because silk worms are quite expensive. You can outsmart this by giving silk worms only to snakehead fish seeds.

Meanwhile, for snakehead fish that are older, snakehead fish food in the form of silk worms can be used as additional snakehead fish food. That is, only occasionally do you give silk worms to the snakehead fish.

3. Trash Fish

Compared to factory-made pellets, it is better for you to provide snakehead fish food with trash fish. The price of trash fish is cheaper than factory-made pellets but it is rich in protein like silk worms.

However, it is very difficult to find trash fish. Trash fish is usually sold at fish auctions close to the fishermen's wharf. 

If you are cultivating around that location, there is nothing wrong with making trash fish as the main snakehead fish food.

4. Small Fish

The next recommendation for snakehead fish feed that contains high protein is fish or small animals that can be placed in freshwater ponds with snakehead fish. So, you can cultivate snakehead fish as well as small fish in the same natural pond.

Indirectly, you cultivate small fish as the main snakehead fish food. For example, wader fish or cethul fish, these two fish are small and live in fresh water.

Meanwhile, other small animals that can be kept in fresh water ponds, for example, crabs, freshwater shrimp or snails.

5. Shrimp

Shrimp can be an alternative food when snakehead fish has decreased appetite. So, it is not recommended to make shrimp as the main snakehead fish food. Preferably, shrimp are used as additional or alternative snakehead fish feed.

Why is that? Because the price of shrimp is quite expensive, this can increase operational costs, especially in the supply of snakehead fish feed. 

So, it's best to give the snakehead fish food only once in a while or when the fish's appetite decreases.

6. Earthworms

You can provide snakehead fish feed in the form of earthworms. Given the initial habitat of the snakehead fish in swamps or muddy rivers, the snakehead fish are used to eating earthworms.

However, even though earthworms have a high protein content needed by snakehead fish, it is better to make earthworms as additional food.

You can use artificial pellets as the main food while earthworms as additional food.

7. Snail

The next snakehead fish food recommendation is snails that live in moist soil. Snails contain good nutrition to accelerate the growth of snakehead fish.

How to feed snakehead fish using snails is to separate the snail shell and meat. Next, finely cut the snail meat into small sizes and then spread it in the snakehead fish pond.

8. Rice Field Conch

The rice field snail has a fairly high protein content and can help the growth of snakehead fish. Fathers / mothers who live near rice fields or own rice fields can make rice field snails as an alternative to additional snakehead fish food.

Both juvenile snakehead fish and adult snakehead fish, all types of snakehead fish can consume rice field snails as additional food because of their properties and nutrition.

The method starts from separating the shell and meat of the rice field snail, then cutting the meat into the smallest pieces or grinding it. When finished, you can spread the rice field snail meat in the pond.

9. Water Flea

Water fleas can be used as food for small snakehead fish or young snakehead fish. This is because water fleas contain high levels of protein, which is around 41 percent. With high enough protein levels, it can optimize the growth of snakehead fish seeds so that they grow up quickly.

The size of water bugs is small and enough to attract the attention of snakehead fish seeds so that the fish can be trained to hunt them.

10. Snail

In addition to rice field snails, you can make snails as an alternative to additional snakehead fish food. The nutrition contained in the snail is almost the same as the rice field snail. So, you can include snails when feeding snakehead fish with rice field snails.

The correct method of feeding snakehead fish

In their natural habitat, good fish are classified as predatory fish that install freshwater inhabitants or other river inhabitants. 

Some of them are fish, shrimp, frogs and worms. Snakehead fish are good at camouflage in the waters and slowly approach their prey.

Meanwhile, snakehead fish originating from the waters of the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, mostly snakehead fish from there are used to consuming good fish food in the form of pellets containing as much as 30 percent protein.

Due to its natural nature as a predator and cannibal, don't let the dose of snakehead fish feed decrease because snakehead fish can prey on other species, especially if there are snakehead fish seeds, these seeds can become prey for snakehead fish.

It is recommended to feed two to three times a day with the dose adjusted based on the number of snakehead fish in the pond. Ideally, snakehead fish food per day is 5 percent of its biomass weight.

In other words, the more snakehead fish in the pond, the more food there must be, and vice versa if the number of snakehead fish is small. The best time to feed fish is between morning, afternoon and evening.

Tips for Choosing Snakehead Fish Food & the Right Composition

To speed up the process of harvesting snakehead fish, you need to consider the type of food that is rich in protein. Because protein is able to maximize the growth process of snakehead fish in a fairly fast time.

In fact, some natural feeds are claimed to accelerate the growth of snakehead fish two to five times faster than factory-made pellets.

However, if you want to experiment with making good fish food yourself then you can follow some of the following composition rules:

1. The first category 1 material is 30 percent.
2. Material category 1 second by 20 percent.
3. Material category 2 as much as 40 percent.
4. Material category 3 as much as 5 percent.

For example, you can mix several ingredients to be used as snakehead fish feed with conditions such as: 35 percent fish meal, 30 percent chopped shrimp, 40 percent corn flour, salt, and several other ingredients that contain minerals by 5 percent.

Even so, the levels of each ingredient may differ from the provisions above depending on the availability of operational funds but with levels that are not too different from those stated above.

For example, suppose you want to increase the content of fish meal to 40 percent, chopped trash fish to 30 percent, soy flour to 30 percent, and other additional ingredients to keep at 5 percent..