FEED FORMULATION AND FEEDING TECHNOLOGY FOR FISHES

Most fish farmers and ornamental fish hobbyists buy the bulk of their feed from commercial manufacturers. However, small quantities of specialized feeds are often needed for experimental purposes, feeding difficult-to maintain aquarium fishes, larval or small juvenile fishes, brood fish conditioning, or administering medication to sick fish. Small ornamental fish farms with an assortment of fish require small amounts of various diets with particular ingredients. It is not cost effective for commercial manufacturers to produce very small quantities of specialized feeds. Most feed mills will only produce custom formulations in quantities of more than one ton, and medicated feeds are usually sold in 50-pound bags. Small fish farmers, hobbyists and laboratory technicians are, therefore, left with the option of buying large quantities of expensive feed, which often goes to waste. Small quantities of fish feeds can be made quite easily in the laboratory, classroom, or at home, with common ingredients and simple kitchen or laboratory equipment. Hence, this review provides the knowledge about the fish feed formulation and feeding technology concerned with the live feed for fish larvae, fish feeds, fish feed ingredients, common fish feed stuffs, animal and plant sources of feeds for culture fish, and fish feeding methods.