Keli - Benih dah masuk

19th of Mei 2009. 10,000 fish fries entered our pond, another 10,000 the next day. Alltogether 20,000 divided in 4 ponds. They look so small and fragile. During transportaion, around 3-40 fries died. The next coming day, few more spotted dead. But it's normal though it's hard to swallow. The rule of thumb is that as long as no more than 10% casulaty, your're still ok. The fries are left in their plastic floating in the pond for about 10 minutes to acclimatise themselves to the pond water temperature.

Each pond houses 5000 fries and will be graded in 2 weeks time. This is to separate the slower growth fries to the faster growing ones. This separation is neccesary to avoid them from bullying one another. At his age, the cannibalistict instict of the fries are still strong. Once they grow to more than 3 inch in length, it would not be as critical. At least that's what i was told.

I've also installed the pump to supply water from the nearby river/drain. It was quite confusing on what size of pump capacity i needed. At first i was told that a 1hp is enough but then another hardware told me that i need at least 3 hp and some even quoted me Groundfos pump (it's like the BMW of pumps) which would have cost me at least RM1000.00. But in the end, i opted to buy the 1 hp based on the advise of the supplier in Jalan Loke Yew (haven for pumps and machineries) and pray that it will work. I drew the plans of my piping and showed it to them. It's of the length of 50m gradual incline with 2m straight up to the tank and 1m straight down to the river bed.

At first i tried by placing the pump nearest to the tank knowing full well that it might not work. Pumps generally has better boosting power (pushing the water out from the pump) compared to suction power. Normally, the suction length of a pump is about max 7m. So naturally it didnt work. I then relocated the pump closer to the source (about 8-9m) but still it wont suck. That's is the maximum length of cable i have. Later on, Baber came to the rescue with additional cable, put the pump closer to the river and it sucks. :) I mean it does it work and suck up the water and push it out to the tank. Then....my tank leaked. Again. Can't complain though. I got it by the roadside and brought it over. Somebody threw it away knowing that it's irrepairable. We already pasted asphalt sealant to it, it leaked. We also tried cementing the base and it still leaked. I'll just have to buy a new one.

"Hah, tu la. Kedekut sangat nak beli tangki, tangki orang buang dah bocor pun pegi kutip. Cheh!"

Update keli

Salam,

Just a short update of what's been happening for the last one month or so. I have been busy with work and the ongoing construction of our pond.
30th April - The physical completion of 8 fish ponds with the size of 10' x 10' each.
2nd of May 2009 - Met En Hairil who would be our supplier for fish fry. We plan to to start with 5000 1 inch fries, 5000 1 inch ++ and 5000 2 inch fries as per En Hairil's advice. Most farmers who rely upon 3 inch fries would have difficulty later on should the 3 inch fries supply runs out. So by starting our venture with 1 inch, we should have no problem to take care of 3 inch later on as the smaller it gets, the harder it is to take care of. En Hairil agreed to become our mentor for this project.
5th of May 2009 - All 4 of us (Helmi, Farid, Baber and myself) officially registered Aquad Agro with ROB.

The remaining vacant plot will be farmed with red chili using conventional method and watered with the water from our fish pond. 300+ seeds of red chili is now being prepared and will be planted here in 3 weeks time.

That's all for now.