The rearing of the African catfish in Africa started in the early seventies in Central and Western Africa as it was realized that it was a very suitable species for aquaculture as:
It grows fast and feeds on a large variety of agriculture by products.
It is hardy and can tolerate adverse water quality conditions.
It can be raised in high densities resulting in high net yields (6–16 t/ha/year).
In most countries it fetch a higher price as tilapia's as it can be sold live at the market.
It matures and is relatively easy to reproduce in captivity.
The last twenty years considerable experience in reproduction, nursing and on growing has been obtained, especially through the FAO projects in the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and the CTFT projects in Ivory Coast.
The rearing of the African catfish caught also attention in Kenya and the project for the development of small scale fish farming in the lake basin area started to reproduce and raise the African catfish in 1993. At present the fish farms of the Lake Basin Authorities are obtaining reasonable results but it is believed that the results can be improved by using the techniques as developed by Janssen in the Central African Republic and by de Graaf in the Republic of Congo. Therefore it was decided to organise a training course, from 3-8-94 to 8-8-94, at the Kibos fish farm for the technicians and extension workers of the project. The training focused on the practical matters and the “small tricks” as developed by other projects. It is however realised that the attendants of the training course have different backgrounds, some of them are working already some time with the African catfish while for others the subject is quit new. Therefore it was decided to write this note-reader, which covers almost all aspects as covered/discussed during training1.
Some of the text has been taken from the training manual written by J. Janssen for FAO/ARAC, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
