Carp has long been bred in artificial dams or fountains. This is relatively easy to do. The diet is enriched with seafood, leaving enough fish for sale. But before you start breeding carp at home, you should learn how to organize a space for fish, how to feed it and how to care for it.
Features, advantages and disadvantages of carp farming
Breeding fish, including carps, has its own risks, positive points and characteristic situations. The undoubted advantages of carp farming include:
- lack of need for a deep reservoir;
- fast growth of carp;
- unpretentiousness to the conditions of detention;
- carp is omnivorous, which facilitates its feeding;
- tasty fish meat with a small amount of seeds;
- high customer demand.
There are also difficulties in keeping carps:
- the fish begins to hurt if there is a lot in the pond;
- the initial contribution of money will justify itself only after 1-2 years, when the fry grow up and gain weight.
A feature of carps is their thermophilicity: representatives of this species eat normally and breed only in well-warmed water. Therefore, the reservoir for them should be located half under the sun, and half in the shade, so that the fish was not cold, but had the opportunity to escape from the scorching rays.
Description of the fish and the choice of the best breed
Carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a freshwater fish of the carp family, a genus of carps. It is distributed in the latitudes of the temperate climate of Russia, in Ukraine, Moldova and in Southeast Asia, which is the birthplace of the family. The species of carps includes 27 species.
The semi-wild carps are called carp. This fish is a long-liver, it can grow up to 50 years. For cultivation in artificially created conditions usually choose:
- Mirror carps. They are able to reach particularly large sizes - up to 1 meter in length and more than 50 kilograms of weight. Such giants are rare, but according to these data one can judge the average size of the mirror carp. Representatives of this species gain weight exclusively in warm water. Among the mirror carps distinguish between linear and frame.
- Naked carps. It is called so for good reason - its body is not covered with scales. Of all food species, the most demanding of conditions.
- Scaly Carps (Common). The most unpretentious carp, with it they usually start farming.
Mirror carp
Naked carp
Scaly (common) carp
In Japan, koi carp is very fond of, but it is appreciated for the decorativeness of scales painted with black, red and orange spots in unpredictable combinations. Koi is allowed into garden ponds or large fountains.
Choosing a place to grow
The carp can live safely in different reservoirs: both in the lake and in the river. But fisheries usually use artificial ponds. In recent years, convenient pools for home fish farming have been created. The main thing is to properly equip the bottom and saturate the water with oxygen. The place for the reservoir should be chosen as far as possible from noise sources and not in a lowland, where dirty water can drain during heavy rains and floods.
Pond
Some people on the farm already have their own pond. In this case, its condition is evaluated according to the requirements for the content of the carp. When digging a new reservoir, the following rules are taken into account:
- Depth no more than 3 meters. Carps love heat, and the sun does not warm deeply.
- Width and length - 3x3 meters.
- Along the coast, it is necessary to plant vegetation that keeps the soil from sliding into the pond, and the trees will create the shade required on hot days.
- It is recommended to fill the bottom with sand, then pour concrete, stretch a rubber film over it, and then let the water run.
- Water needs to be populated with microorganisms and algae. The easiest way to bring a pair of buckets from a natural freshwater reservoir. After a few months, the pond itself will be filled with life. The second option is to acquire and sow algae.
- Fish is allowed in only when the water temperature is above 24 degrees Celsius.
Protect the pond from birds! They carry pathogens and viruses.
Swimming pool
It is much more convenient to breed carps in the pool, because it is much easier to observe the condition of the fish, create comfortable conditions, and keep the water clean.
The pool can be purchased or flooded on the site yourself. Currently, the most popular silo pools with vertical water supply. The material of which the container is made does not matter. The optimal depth is 1.5 meters.
Before releasing fish, just like a pond, the pool must be populated with microorganisms. The methods are the same - water from a natural pond, or sowing.
The main thing is to maintain oxygen saturation in the pool.
Read more about how to grow fish in the pool - read here.
Carp breeding equipment
The minimum required for carp life includes the right body of water and heat. But there are devices that will facilitate fish care, and will help to increase offspring:
- cages and cage lines;
- filters for water;
- aeration system;
- compressors;
- oximeter;
- oxygen generator;
- fish feeders;
- barrels and pumps;
- water recycling system;
- incubators for removing fry from eggs;
- bottom cleaners;
- sterilizers;
- devices for testing the composition of water;
- backlight.
Conditions of detention
Common carp is one of the most unpretentious fish. But, like for any other living creature, he needs conditions in which the fish will be comfortable so that it can grow and multiply.
Water and its oxygen content
Ideally, you need to create an imitation of running water in a reservoir, but with a low flow rate. For this, two pipes are arranged: from the pond / pool and into it. One, smaller in diameter, will introduce clean water, thanks to a filter with a pump, the other will let it out. Water can be taken from a clean river, stream, or well. You need to drain into the sewer. A filter must also be installed on the drain so that the fish does not slip.
Water from the central water supply is not suitable, since it was chlorinated and contains a lot of salts.
The oxygen content should not fall below 3 milligrams per liter. This parameter is determined using a special device - an oximeter. To increase the gas content, oxygen generators, aerators or compressors are used. They sink to the bottom and release oxygen into the water. Reduces its level of bottom contamination with fish excrement and rotting plants.
Temperature
In the warm season, the water warms up on its own. But you need to monitor the temperature. It should not fall below +22 degrees and rise above +30 Celsius. Thermal processes are regulated by draining and supplying fresh water.
How to breed carps?
Having prepared the pond and equipping it with the necessary devices, you can do the fish directly. The first step is to determine the type of carp.
It is recommended to take the species characteristic of the region where fisheries are created.
Purchase of fry
It is safest to buy fry from those who have already successfully raised carps. At the same time, you can look at the life of the fish farm, and see the health of the fish. Before purchasing, you should familiarize yourself with the licenses and certificates of the seller.
The order of fry can be made from another region, and delivered in a special way in tanks, buckets, cans. They are filled either with water from the pond, or rain.
When to launch fish in a pond
The ideal period for launching fry into the water is the end of April - beginning of May. But the water should warm up to + 22-24 degrees Celsius, which means that artificial heating may be required.
How and what to feed carp?
Carp is fed only in warm water twice a day. It is better to feed in the morning, as soon as the sun's rays warm the water, and in the evening until sunset. But these recommendations do not apply to all methods of feeding carp - there are 3 of them:
- Extensive type. The pond is inhabited by natural flora and fauna (not including other fish). Carp feeds on its own. By choosing this method, you can guarantee environmentally friendly fish meat, but carp will gain weight slowly.
- Intensive type. Feeding occurs with artificial feed for pigs or poultry with a protein content of at least 30%. The fish will quickly gain weight. But the taste of carp will deteriorate, and the reservoir will often have to be cleaned of residual feed.
- Semi-intensive type. The golden mean in feeding carp. The fish feeds on the natural population of the reservoir, and receives complementary foods. It can be bread, oats, corn, wheat, maggots, larvae, bloodworms, earthworms, legumes.
Nutrition will make adult fish weighing half a kilogram from the fry in 9 months.
Breeding
It is advisable for spawning to make carp a separate pond and plant adult healthy individuals there. There should be twice as many males as females.
Females spawn in the moss or laid in advance on the bottom of the sod. There, the eggs remain until hatching, which occurs after about a week. When this happens, adults need to be returned, the water drained, and the “young animals” collected with a net with small cells and put in a separate pond. Otherwise, the chances are high that the fry will be eaten by adults.
The diet of the fry is the same as that of adult fish. It may also include milk powder. In winter, teens will have to be picked up at their home pool or aquarium.
Spawning of carps begins at the same time as the flowering of wheat.
Wintering carp in a pond
After the appearance of the first strong ice, a street pond or pool is covered with snow, or with artificial insulators, not forgetting to make holes for oxygen in different places.
Individuals that live indoors should be fed less and less.
Business payback
Investing in efforts and means, one must assume what will come of it. The main disadvantage of carp breeding is a large cash contribution at the initial stage. But seldom what business does without initial capital.
Expenses
The main expense item is a pond. Creating a pond, conditions for its aeration and cleaning can result in a large amount - approximately 100 thousand rubles.
It can be reduced if you do not create a pond from scratch, or buy a pool, and rent it. It’s cheaper to equip an existing pond.
The average price for fry carp is 5 rubles apiece. It will take 600 fry to fill the pond. The total purchase will cost 3 thousand rubles.
Food, depending on the type of feeding selected, will require costs from 1 to 6 thousand rubles per year.
Profit and profitability
In good conditions, by the end of the year you can sell carp. On average, the price of it is 70 rubles per kilogram. So, provided that all the fry have survived and grown, they will be sold for 42 thousand rubles.
The implementation of live carp will be even more expensive (about 100 rubles per kilogram). It makes no sense to sell all the fish. But the sale of even half of the adult fish will pay off the costs of breeding carps.
Fish farming is an exciting and profitable activity. The main efforts in breeding carp are associated with the creation of a suitable reservoir, systems for supplying and purifying water, enriching it with oxygen. When creating favorable conditions, you can build a successful business.
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Russia. City: Syktyvkar
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