In every edition of IAF we focus in on a specific species for our expert topic

1. July | August 2013
EXPERT TOPIC - CATFISH
The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry
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3. 38 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | July-August 2013
EXPERT T●PIC
Welcome to Expert Topic. Each issue will take an in-depth look
at a particular species and how its feed is managed.
CATFISH
EXPERT TOPIC
CHANNEL

4. World view
In 2009, the total channel catfish (Ictalurus
punctatus) production was 449,753 tonnes
with a value of more than US$658 million
annually (FAO). Of this, the USA and China
contributed 215, 887 tonnes and 223,233
tonnes respectively.
Although the USA and China are the
principal channel catfish producers, several
other countries have channel catfish aquacul-
ture industries. Brazil produced almost 3,000
tonnes in 2009 and Mexico has consistently
produced in the region of 1,500 tonnes a year.
Costa Rica’s channel catfish industry start-
ed in the twenty-first century producing 100
tonnes a year. However, this tailed off and by
2009, production had fallen to just 10 tonnes.
One country where the channel catfish
industry has grown rapidly is Cuba where
production rose from 105 tonnes in 2000 to
6,031 tonnes in 2009.
In addition to the central and south
American countries, there is some interest
in the species in eastern Europe. In Russia,
channel catfish production increased from 65
tonnes in 200 to 145 tonnes in 2009.
Bulgaria has reported statistics to the FAO
since 2005, although the amount produced is
not consistent. A high of 166 tonnes in 2005
was followed by 60 tonnes a year later.
1
USA
Since commercial farming of channel cat-
fish began in the middle of the twentieth
century, the species has been popular with
US consumers. By 2010, channel catfish
had cemented itself as a favourite on the
nation's plates becoming the sixth most
consumed fish or seafood in the USA,
behind shrimp, tuna, salmon, tilapia and
pollack.
As input costs have risen, farmers have
struggled to make catfish farming profitable
and in recent years, the number of facilities
has decreased. Acreage fell by 50 percent
between 2001-2011. In 2012 there were
718 facilities, a drop of 191 from the
previous year. This meant that the total
acreage area also declined from almost
100,000 acres in 2011 to 89,400 acres in
2012 (National Ag Statistics Service 2012).
Despite this fall in farms, total sales have
been on the rise, amounting to US$341
million in 2012, a 20 percent increase from
the previous year. Four states, Mississippi,
Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, made up
95 percent of total United States sales
(National Ag Statistics Service 2013).
2
China
Channel catfish aquaculture in China began
in 1984 with fish imported from the USA.
The fish was successfully reproduced in
1987 and pond culture started a year
later. Current annual processing of chan-
nel catfish production in China is between
150,000 to 200,000 tons according to
report by Cai Yanzhi (Hubei Province
Aquatic Products Scientific Research
Institute) and Xiao Youhong (National
Fishery Technical Extension Station).
From 2000, exports began to the USA.
However, in 2007, the US food safety
watchdog, the FDA, temporally halted
catfish imports from China after traces of
antibiotics banned in the USA were found
in tested samples.
Cai and Xiao argue that Chinese catfish
is well poised to take advantage of falling
US production, both to established catfish
importers and the US itself. However, the
report claims Chinese catfish exporters
face huge challenges including a lack of
standardisation on farms and processing
facilities and strict food safety laws, particu-
larly in the USA.
July-August 2013 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | 39
EXPERT T●PIC
2
1
3

6. Early history of
the U.S. farm-
raised catfish
industry
- 1914-1973
by Jim Steeby, PhD, associate professor
emeritus, Mississippi State University, USA
A
s early as 1914 a researcher by
the name of A F Shira spawned
adult channel catfish by placing
them in a small pond at the U.S.
Bureau Fisheries Station in Fairport, Iowa.
The fish were provided with cheese and
minnows as forage during the experiment.
By 1916, Shira had placed nail kegs in
the ponds with the brood fish to provide
them with semi natural spawning cavities. Of
course in the wild, most catfish species lay
their egg mass in hollow logs or tunnels left
by muskrats and beavers that are flooded.
Catfish eggs and fry were found in the nail
kegs confirming their use by the brooders.
He also noted that catfish would readily
consume a variety of feedstuffs. Several state
and federal fish hatcheries worked with
spawning and growing catfish over the next
ten years.
Catfish in Kansas
By 1929 a biologist named Alvin Clapp at
the Kansas State Hatchery at Pratt Kansas with
his facility manager, Seth Way, completed the
modern catfish hatchery system we know
today. As demonstrated by Dose in 1925
at this same facility, they placed sexed adult
catfish in ponds with nail kegs for spawning.
They removed the egg masses from the
kegs to an indoor hatchery with troughs and
flowing water. The egg masses were placed
in wire mesh baskets suspended in troughs
for hatching and provided rotating paddles
first powered by water and later by electric
motors.
By 1930, the propagation catfish was easily
accomplished and crude feeds had been suc-
cessfully used to provide them with nutrition.
In 1946, the first commercial catfish farm of
record was started in Kingman, Kansas by W E
‘Bus’ Hartley. It should be noted that Kingman
is not far from the Kansas Fish Hatchery in
Pratt were a great deal of the early work was
completed. Indeed, Seth Way near the end
of his career retired from the Pratt Hatchery
and partnered with Hartley. The photo shows
Hartley and Way standing near their ponds
in Kingman, Kansas. Hartley saw the increas-
ing demand for catfish to stock into private
ponds as hobby fishing was on the rise. While
Hartley grew minnows as well as bass and
bluegill, by the early 1950s catfish was over
half his annual production. Working with local
3
Billy McKinney
40 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | July-August 2013
EXPERT T●PIC

7. feed mills he created one
of the early dry feed pellet
diets for catfish. Some of the
early work on catfish diets
was carried out in Kansas
by Dr Otto W Tiemeier at
Kansas State University.
In 1974 Hartley was
selected as Catfish Farmer
of the Year at the annual
convention in Memphis,
Tennessee. By this time he
had been fish farming for
30 years and had over 100
ponds and 290 acres under
water. He hatched, grew
and processed his own fish.
He served on the board
of directors for the Catfish
Farmers of America from its
founding. Indeed, Kingman
was noted as the ‘catfish
capital’ of Kansas by those
around the area. Central
Kansas, from Pratt to Kingman, could be con-
sidered the cradle of the farm-raised catfish
industry.
Developments in Arkansas
The nursery of the farm-raised catfish
industry was Arkansas. Here minnow farm-
ing had been in large practice since the late
1930s and early 1940s. Growing baitfish and
bass and bluegill gave these farmers a hand
and it could be said a wadder-up on the
transport, handling and husbandry of fish.
Among those starting early and standing
out was Eagar Farmer of Dumus, Arkansas.
Buffalo fish (Ictiobus sp.) was an early meat
fish grown by Arkansas fish farmers. It was
hardy and had a ready market that continues
until today.
As catfish became more popular and prof-
itable the switch from buffalo fish was rapid. In
1973, when he was selected as catfish farmer
of the year at the annual Catfish Farmers of
America Convention in New Orleans, LA,
Eagar Farmer had over 1,000 acres of catfish
Tom Reed, F B. Janous and Leroy Reed
July-August 2013 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | 41
EXPERT T●PIC
several millimeters to less than 0.001 micron.
Fine filtration systems, such as microscreen
drum filters which are already commonly
used in aquaculture, typically require much
larger filter screens and/or higher pressures to
operate effectively than a screen with larger
openings.
Centrifuges and hydro clones
Centrifuges and hydro clones are growing
in popularity as they cross from domestic use
into commercial use. Cylindrical in shape, the
mechanism rotates the central chamber very
rapidly, forcing waste particles that are denser
than the water to the sides of the cylinder. A
layer of water from the outer rim is then taken
out, which removes most of the particles with
it, leaving the clean water in the centre to be
put back into the aquaculture system.
Bruce Atkinson, aquaculture design and
sales manager, Aquasonic, Australia, says cen-
trifugal solutions such as Waterco’s new
range of MultiCyclone filters can allow you to
increase stocking rates.
“The link between feed rates and
MultiCyclones is fairly obvious for fish culture
systems,” says Atkinson. “With the addition
of the MultiCyclone, more efficient mechani-
cal filtration takes place and hence greater
volumes of feed can be introduced without
system fouling caused by organic deposition
and bacterial proliferation.
“This means stocking rates can be
increased, with subsequent improved pro-
duction. MultiCyclones in fish culture
systems are best deployed on the
system return pump prior to, say, bag
or cartridge polishing filters on the
way back to the fish tank. ”
Sand or bead filters
Sand or bead filters can be either
fixed bed and particle bed filters that con-
sist of a box filled with sand or another
particulate material. To achieve fine par-
ticle filtration, the filter medium should
be very fine grain and may also need to
be pressurised. Water passes through the
fixed bed either in a downward direction
or and upward direction (down flow and
up flow), and waste particles are removed
by the sand/beads. The size of particles
removed depends on the size of the filter
medium, flow rate and waste characteris-
tics. A sand/bead filter may need frequent
backwashing if waste is very concentrated.
Floatation or foam
fractionation
Floatation or foam fractionation is a
form of chemical filtration; this type of
filtration is able to retrieve very fine
particles from an aquaculture sys-
tem, and is consequently already
Waterco’s
commercial
MultiCyclone
July-August 2013 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | 19
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8. production. He was also one of the founders
of a catfish processing cooperative in Dumas
and a long time board member for Catfish
Farmers of America.
Arkansas fish farmers relied heavily on
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fish Station
at Stuttgart, Arkansas directed by Kermit
Sneed, and the Marine Fisheries Service Gear
Technology Station at Kelso, Arkansas direct-
ed by Donald Greenland, for new information
and technical advice. Early Stuttgart staff
included a full range of experts: Mayo Martin
(extension), Walt Hastings (nutrition), Dewey
Tackett (chemist), and Fred Meyer (disease
diagnostics).
Alabama
In the 1960s as Arkansas was switching
to catfish, Alabama began to play a role in
the early phases of university research and
processing. At Auburn, Dr Homer Swingle
had been constructing farm ponds and
investigat-
ing their
use begin-
ning in
1940. His
early work
with the
science
of rec-
reational
pond
management left Auburn in place to train
a growing number of students and easily
move to catfish and many other species.
He began nutrition work on catfish as early
as 1950. The Federal hatchery in Marion,
Alabama began under the direction of Jack
Snow (an Auburn graduate) in 1950, and
was a great source of help to fish farmers.
Early commercial pioneers in Alabama
beginning from around 1960 include Richard
True, Check Stephens and Joe Glover. They
used the information published by Kermit
Sneed and Howard Clemens to artificially
induce spawning of channel catfish using
hormones on a commercial basis. They insti-
tuted the first recorded use of a commercial
skinning machine to remove the skin of catfish.
Previously it was done by hand with gripping
pliers.
True and Glover moved to Mississippi in
the early 1970s as the industry was rapidly
shifting to the delta. They both worked many
years in large scale commercial processing.
They were also instrumental in starting the
Catfish Marketing Association in 1972. This
early promotion of the industry paid for by
processors, appeared at food shows and
national restaurant association meetings and
was likely critical to the industry growth
that would follow in the 1970s and 1980s.
Those remaining in Alabama farming for many
years were William Easterling, Dan Butterfield,
David Pearce, and Thad Spree.
The catfish industry comes
of age in Mississippi
The catfish industry grew up and came
of age in Mississippi. With its warm climate
and vast land acres of heavy clay soil and
abundant ground water it was the fertile
place where resources were nearly unlimited.
Here large farms with land forming equipment
could quickly construct ponds and have wells
installed.
Billy McKinney and his partner, Raymond
Brown were the first farmers of record (1965)
to construct a pond to produce a large crop
of catfish, 10,000 pounds, that when har-
vested had to be transported some 600 miles
to central Kansas to be processed and sold.
In the next year he would partner with other
farmers, including Tom Reed, Leroy Reed,
and B F Janous, John Peaster, T R Coleman,
Melvin and W F Anderson among others to
form a local processing plant in Morgan City,
42 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | July-August 2013
EXPERT T●PIC

9. MS. They opened a catfish restaurant nearby
shortly after in 1967.
In the mid 1960s Bobby Thompson and
W F ‘Skinner’ Anderson teamed up to grow
hatch and grow fingerlings for the rapid-
ly expanding industry. By 1970 the catfish
industry was well established in Mississippi,
Arkansas and Alabama.
In 1974, dissatisfied with the quality and
price of commercial catfish feed several grow-
ers, including Tom Reed III, organised a grow-
er-owned feed mill near Belzoni, Mississippi.
This producers’ feed mill would serve the
industry as a major source of feed for the
next 20 years.
The expanding industry in Mississippi
began to experience fish health and
water quality problems on a large scale.
With advice and input from county agent
Tommy Taylor and growers, Mississippi
State University initiated disease diagnostic,
extension and research services to catfish
farmers under Leader Dr Tom Wellborn
from 1971-1987.
Spreading throughout the USA
Between 1960 and 1970, the U.S. farm-
raised catfish industry went from 600 acres
to 40,000 acres. In 1970 Catfish farms
were found in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri,
Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Georgia and Kansas. The stage was now set
for growth and growing pains for the next 30
years to come.
By 1999, the industry had expanded to
over four times the water acres in 1970
with Mississippi alone having over 100,000
water acres of ponds. Thousands of people
would be involved with feed manufacture,
feeding, harvesting, processing, research
and extension phases of the expanding
industry.
Expansion of the U.S. Farm-Raised
Catfish industry for the next 30 years and
the decline from 2002 to present day are
two more stories for another time. Here
we celebrate those early pioneers that
worked with many unknowns and set
the course for most of us that followed.
It should be noted here that the State
Fish Hatchery at Pratt, Kansas is still in
operation and the Hartley Fish Hatchery at
Kingman is still operated by ‘Bus’ Hartley’s
sons, Bill and Jerry.
The Pratt museum
July-August 2013 | InternAtIonAl AquAFeed | 43
EXPERT T●PIC
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EDICION
ESPANOLA
within all treatments concerning,
ients utilization parameters may
differences in sexes, metabolism,
esponses and sexual behaviours
this stage of life.
ss composition
chemical analysis of the whole
niloticus body at the start and at
the
is
in
ese
ted
ere
≤
ses
EC
the
oup
red
ary
of
T4),
ent
sed
≤
T2
and
ver,
end
in
the
EE
not
T1
with
and
as
with
, of
these results ash content increased significantly in
T3 and T4 compared with T2 and the control
T1. Generally, proximate chemical analysis of the
whole fish body at the start, revealed higher DM,
EE and EC than in the end of the experiment,
but CP and ash were lower at the start than at
the end of the experiment.
Female
Adult female O. niloticus fed the 5 g
Hydroyeast Aquaculture®/kg diet (T6)
table 9: effects of Hydroyeast aquaculture® probiotic on carcass
composition of adult female O. niloticus
% on dry matter basis
treat. DM CP ee ash eC
at the start of the experiment
24.3 59.2 23.6 17.1 557.5
at the start of the experiment
t5 20.9b 53.9c 26.8a 19.1a 557.7b
t6 22.4a 60.2a 24.1b 15.7b 566.9a
t7 17.1d 55.7b 25.7a 18.5a 557.6b
t8 18.4c 55.6bc 25.7a 18.6a 559.9b
± Se 0.09 0.50 0.44 0.29 2.54
P- value 0.0001 0.0001 0.015 0.0001 0.070
Means in the same column having different small letters are significantly
differ (P ≤ 0.05). DM: Dry matter (%); CP: Crude protein (%); EE: Ether
extract (%); EC: Energy content (Kcal/100 g), calculated according to
NRC (1993); SE: Standard Error
C
5.1
0.4a
2.9b
1.8c
.5bc
21
001
cantly
Ether
g to
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LINKS
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Maintaining ingredient
quality in extruded feeds
Fine particle filtration in
aquaculture
Effect of probiotic,
Hydroyeast Aquaculture
– as growth promoter for adult Nile tilapia
Volume 16 Issue 4 2013 - JulY | August
INCORPORATING
fIsh fARmING TeChNOlOGy
EXPERT TOPIC
– channel catfish
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