SaniFish Project Fingerlings Procurement
Video credit: Mark Yeboah-Agyepong (TriMark)

Fingerlings Procurement from commercial hatchery for further culture onsite

The fish species considered for culture under SaniFish project is African catfish (Clarias gariepinus).The fingerlings for the project were supplied by GalaFarm, a private commercial hatchery farm located at Offinso near Kumasi (about 45 minutes drive to our project site).The key challenges encountered during the fingerlings procurement included scarcity in getting the appropriate quality, quantity and sizes of fingerlings. Among some of the reasons given for this fingerlings scarcity were high customers demand for their products and effect of climatic changes on hatchability of their fish eggs (farmers claim they have low hatchability rate during dry seasons - December and January in Ghana). This led to the inability of the commercial fingerlings suppliers to meet our order for 5000 fingerlings proposed for stocking into three wastewater-fed ponds: second facultative ponds, first and second maturation ponds (MP’s) of the waste stabilization pond. The supplier was able to deliver only a total of 2000fingerlings (5g average weight) which could be stocked into two wastewater-fed ponds: first and second MP’s. We propose to produce our own fingerlings as part of our future plans. The procured fingerlings were received into enclosed onsite concrete tanks constructed on the project site at Chirapatre Estate.The fingerlings will be further cultured in the onsite concrete tanks until they reach a desired weight (approx 40g) before they are transferred into the treated wastewater-fed ponds for growing out.