Fischtechnik International Engineering GmbH (FTIE) from Austria has successfully completed the grading trial for African catfish and can now recommend its own grading machines for use with the species. It is told that African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) are robust, grow rapidly and have modest requirements concerning protein levels in feed or water quality.
The company informed that the species’ ability to breathe a certain amount of atmospheric oxygen makes higher population concentrations possible without the need for technical oxygen or complex water aeration. All these factors make the African catfish a popular species for use in commercial aquaculture. It is informed that fish reared in aquaculture systems have to be graded regularly according to size.
It is easy to grade traditional aquaculture species such as trout or salmon since their long history of commercial breeding has resulted in a high uniformity of shape and size. However, this is not true for the African catfish. Fish of the same weight can vary greatly in body shape, fatness and length, making it difficult to sort them into groups and posing particular challenges for the grading process.
Grading machines manufactured by Fischtechnik International Engineering GmbH use a special belt grading system which makes them very precise and gentle to the fish. This prompted the idea of running a trial with African catfish.
