Feed Making Plant Cat Fish Feed Production Line Equipment For Sale

Catfish feeds are mainly plant-based, though feeds for fry and small fingerlings contain some fish meal and other animal proteins. Major ingredients used in catfish feeds generally include soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn and by-products, and wheat by-products.Therefore, Cat Fish feed pellets must be produced with suitable equipment. Today I mainly introduce the equipment for the cat fish feed production line of 1-2t/h feed factory.

Yesterday, I received a Nigeria user’s inquiry on the production of fish feed pellets, the content is as follows:

"Good morning. My name is Kenneth, and i am new in cat fish rearing business. I intend doing small scale feed production for my farm. i came across, on the internet, the above mentioned machine models for fish food production. Therefore, i will like to know

1. the cost of the machines

2. mode and terms of delivering

3. if you have dealers in Nigeria and if yes, their contact..

Please give me some more information about your plant and quote me for a 1-2t/h Feed Making Plant Cat Fish Feed Production Line Equipment.

warmest regards"

Cat Fish

1-2t/h Feed Making Plant Cat Fish Feed Production Line Equipment

1. Raw material selection

Besides the nutritional value, the processing characteristics of aquatic feed raw materials should also be an important factor to be concerned about. The ideal processing characteristics of aquatic feed raw materials are not only manifested by larger output and less energy consumption in crushing, mixing or granulation, the more important point is that the final produced fish feed pellets must have good stability in water.

Starch is usually an important component in aquatic feeds, and the content of starch can be 5% to 60%. It is suggested that the starch content of sinking fish feed is 10% to 15%, and the starch content of floating fish feed is no less than 20%. In extruding fish feed pellets, carbohydrates act as adhesives, suspending agents, and emulsifiers. It is an important determinant of many structures and special sensory properties of extruded products.

2. Crushing

Crushing process can reduce raw material size to desired particle size. For producing 150-700kg/h fish feed pellets with regular requirements, the hammer mill is enough. For producing 1-10T/h fish feed pellets, the water-drop crusher is a must. For even larger aquatic feed manufacturing factory, the crushing process adopts secondary crushing technology, that is: first normal crushing, and then fine crushing.

3. Mixing

Mixing is one of the most important processes in aquatic feed production. If the physical properties of feed ingredients are the same, mixing is very simple. But as a matter of fact, the physical properties of feed ingredients are varied, and the problem of mixing and separation coexist. These physical properties include: particle size, particle shape, density or specific gravity, hygroscopicity, static charge and viscosity.

When adding material to the mixer, the smaller the ingredient is, the later it should be added., such as vitamins, minerals and drug premixture. Before adding oil or liquid, all dry ingredients must be mixed well (dry mixed). After dry mixing, spray oil or other liquids on the top, then mix again (wet mix). Horizontal twin screw mixer is the most commonly used mixer for aquatic feed. Usually there is a discharge port equal to the full length of the mixer at the bottom. Most fish feeds need to add some liquids. In some cases, they need to add some moist raw materials. In practice, it is generally allowed to add 10% of the liquid.

4. Conditioning (optional)

Conditioning is to add water and heat to the powdery material before making fish feed, it can: improve the digestibility and water resistance of feed, kill pathogenic bacteria. Usually this process is realized by wet type fish feed extruder, but its price is much higher. So, for ordinary fish feed production, this process is not necessary.

5. Fish feed pelletizing or extruding

For making fish feed pellets, there are mainly 2 types of machines: common feed pellet mill, fish feed extruder.

Common feed pellet mill can produce sinking fish feed and fish bait. Compare to making livestock or poultry feed pellets, the production of fish feed using feed pellet mill has the following features: 1. higher compression ratio.

Fish feed extruder：Nowadays, the most widely used fish feed extruder is single screw type. While the single screw fish feed extruder can also be divided into dry extruder and wet extruder. The fish feed extruder can produce all kinds of fish feed, like floating fish feed, sinking fish feed, slow sinking fish feed, and also semi-humid fish feed. However, as the feed extruding machine has complex operation, high price, and high production cost compared to common feed pellet mill, it is usually utilized in producing high grade aquatic feed.

6. Fish feed pellets drying

In order to prevent mildew of fish feed, aquatic feed must have good anticorrosive property. For fish feed factories, the most economical way is to reduce feed moisture, this is realized by dryer. The 3-layer drying machine can improve drying space and efficiency, at the same time screen fish feed pellets and seprate the powder. After heating and drying, the moisture content of the product is controlled below 11.5%, plus a well sealed outer package, generally, the feed can be stored safely for a long time. This physical anticorrosion method does not change the composition of feed, change the pH value of feed, nor affect the water quality of and feed quality. It is a safe and effective method.

7. Out-spraying

In fish or aquatic feed production, the edible oil and heat-sensitive components are usually sprayed by drum-type sprayer. When feed pellets fall, the vaporous liquid material is sprayed to them, so feed pellets can fully contact with droplets in the air. The main technical points of this external sparying technology are: (1) make the liquid atomized as much as possible. The smaller the droplets of atomization, the more uniform the distribution of liquid in the particles. To do this, the design of the spray nozzle is very important; (2) the weight of the particles and the liquid material match. The outside spraying process is a continuous operation process, so the water solubility of spraying liquid must be considered to avoid loss into the water.

8. Fish feed pellets cooling

The fish feed pellets, after spraying liquid, are conveyed to counter-flow cooler. The counter-flow cooler has many advantages in fish feed pellets processing, such as high automation, small air volume, low power consumption and small floor area.

Buying Catfish Feed vs. Making Your Feed

In the short time that I’ve been in this business, I’ve realized that you’ll be more profitable if you make your own feed as opposed to buying feed from major producers.

Some farmers rely on floating feed from producers like Durante and Aqua Feed to grow their fishes, but due to the expensive nature of these fishes, it can be unprofitable on the long term.

If you learn how to make your own feed, though, you’ll save a lot more money and you can have more impact on your fishes since you can easily control what they are eating.

My Fish Feed Formula

That said, here’s the formula I use for my fishes depending on the stage they are at; this formula uses the Hhanstholm 72% fish meal; I use local fish that can be gotten here in Nigeria depending on availability, but there is a lot of fluctuations in their availability, which became especially pronounced during the 2015 elections, ensuring there hasn’t been local fish that fish farmers can use for over 2 months now at the time of writing this, so I’m giving a formula based on the Hanstholm 72% fish meal, since this is always available:

Feed Formula for 200 – 600 Grams Catfish

Your catfishes are still very small and tender at this stage, so they need quality nutrient in their feed; this formula results in a feed rich in good protein but it is a bit expensive; it is not as expensive as using floating feed, though.

You should only have to use this feed formula for around 1 – 2 months.

• Fish meal (Hanstholm, 72%): 25%
• Soya Meal (or full fat soya): 30%
• GNC (Groundnut cake): 20%
• Dough/Maize/Biscuit (or other main forms of energy/carbohydrate): 20%
• Molasses: 5%

(Based on this formula, 1 ton of fish feed will have: 250kg fish meal, 300kg soya meal, 200kg GNC, 200kg Dough, 50kg molasses)

The above are the main ingredients; you can then use other ingredients such as DCP (Dicalcium Phosphate), Methionine, Lysine, Salt, Vit. C, Fish Premixes, Antibiotics, etc. according to your preference.

Feed Formula for 600 Grams and Above

• Fish meal (Hanstholm, 72%): 10%
• Soya Meal (or full fat soya): 40%
• GNC (Groundnut cake): 20%
• Dough/Maize/Biscuit (or other main forms of energy/carbohydrate): 25%
• Molasses: 5%

(Based on this formula, 1 ton of fish feed will have: 100kg fish meal, 400kg soya meal, 200kg GNC, 250kg Dough, 50kg molasses)

The above are the main ingredients; you can then use other ingredients such as DCP (Dicalcium Phosphate), Methionine, Lysine, Salt, Vit. C, Fish Premixes, Antibiotics, etc. according to your preference.

PS. In my own case, for 1 ton of feed I use the following: DCP (Dicalcium Phosphate): 10kg, Methionine: 1kg, Lysine: 1kg, Salt: 2 – 3kg, Vit. C: 1kg, Fish Premixes: 5kg, Antibiotics: Optional, unless my fishes are sick (in which case the quantity depends on the antibiotics used; it’s often around 500g to 2kg for 1 ton of feed, though)