Chapter 4

Technical Study

Business Description

Bang Supply takes pride in producing fresh and high-quality milkfish

that will offer an affordable price. The business will sell the product to the

market vendors.

Milkfish (Chanos chanos) is the only species in the Family Chanidae.

Adults occur in small to large schools near the coasts or around islands. They

are well developed, migratory, large (up to 1.5 m and 20 kg), and mature

sexually in five years. Milkfish only spawn in fully saline waters. The activity is

most often correlated with the new or full moon phases, takes place mostly in

the night and, in most regions, has one or two seasonal peaks. In the natural

environment, spawning takes place near coral reefs during the warm months

of the year, and populations near the equator spawn year-round. Juveniles

and adults eat a wide variety of relatively soft and small food items, from

microbial mats to detritus, epiphytes and zooplankton. The milkfish fry when

grown in the fish pond will grow to marketable size which is rich in protein and

other nutrients as well as palatable and relished very much by the consuming

public domestically and abroad. This commodity command good price in the

market and can be prepared into different recipes as well as ingredients for

different food items.

 Milkfish eggs (1.1-1.2 mm in diameter) and larvae (3.5 mm at hatching)

are pelagic and stay in the plankton for up to 2-3 weeks. Egg division begins

an hour after and hatching occurs 35-36 hours after spawning. In the wild,

eggs are probably released in deeper oceanic waters and in the outer reef

region. Older larvae migrate onshore and settle in coastal wetlands

(mangroves, estuaries) during the juvenile stage, or occasionally enter

freshwater lakes. The larvae eat zooplankton and can thrive and grow in

water as warm as 32 °C. Then, they migrate onshore and where they can be

caught by fine-mesh nets operated along sandy beaches and mangrove

areas; these 'fry' are 10-17 mm long and are used as seedstock in grow-out

ponds, pens and cages. In the wild, juveniles are found in mangrove areas

and coastal lagoons, and even travel upriver into lakes; they go back to sea

when they get too large for the nursery habitat, or when they are about to

mature sexually.

Milkfish can reach a maximum size of 180 cm SL (male/unsexed) and

124 cm SL (female). The maximum recorded weight and age is 14.0 kg and

15 years respectively. Resilience is low, with a minimum population doubling

time of 4.5 14 years. Its fisheries importance is highly commercial, especially

in aquaculture, and it is also used in game fish as bait. It is especially valued

as a food fish in Southeast Asia.

Production Process

To attain the production target as envisioned, the different activities are

presented below:

1. A milkfish fishpond should be situated in areas with favorable climatic

condition that would permit year round and efficient operation. Warm

climate and adequate sunshine throughout the year are ideal. The

aspects to be considered are as follows:

• Climatic type – Climatic type 3 (season not very pronounced,

relatively dry from November to April and wet during the rest of the year) and

type 4 (rainfall more or less evenly distributed throughout of the year) are

preferred milkfish production sites in the Philippines.

• Minimal occurrence of typhoon

2. Elevation of the site should be given particular attention to prevent

flooding of the fishpond and for proper water drainage.

3. The site should be far from population centers and free from possible

impact of inland water discharges especially agricultural pesticides and

domestic or industrial waste.

4. Seawater source from a bay or open sea rather than from a river or creek

is preferred. Localities with rocky or coralline shorelines have good water

quality relatively closer to the shore. This reduces cost of water intake

installation and minimizes problems of clogging and maintenance.

5. Sites which are to be avoided are swamps, river mouths, tidal flats and

muddy shores where water be - comes turbid during heavy rains or strong

winds.
6. Adequate freshwater supply for cleaning tanks and equipment, salinity

adjustment for larval rearing and culture of food organisms and domestic

consumption. Freshwater with high mineral contents such as iron (> 1

mg/l) or manganese (> 2 mg/l) is not suitable.

7. Reliable electric supply to provide the necessary power to run the life

support system and equipment 24 hours a day.

8. The fishpond should be near available source of milkfish broodstocks,

eggs or newly hatched larvae as this will greatly reduce transport stress

and transport cost.

Accessibility:

•Accessible to both land and water transport for fast and convenient delivery

of supplies and materials and marketing of fry.

•Adjacent or close to an airport so that the fry produced can be shipped with

dispatch.

•Near centers of grow-out operation to minimize transport cost, reduce stress

to fry and avoid mortalities.

•Have access to communication facilities for market information and to

facilitate business transaction is necessary.

•Peace and order situation in the locality is also an important factor in

selecting a site

9. Milkfish is grown in brackish water ponds or in marine cages for five years

to reach sexual maturity. When grown in brackish water ponds, these are

transferred to marine waters either in floating sea cages or land-based

tanks and fed high protein (36 - 38%) diet for them to develop their
 gonads. In landbased tanks, a flow-through water system at an exchange

rate of 200% per day is maintained.

10. A canula is used to sample the gonadal material through the genital

opening in order to identify the males and the females.

11. Clove oil (Eugenol) or MS222 is used to anesthetize the fish during the

procedure as well as for transferring the stock. The fish are allowed to

spawn naturally although they may also be induced by hormone injection.

Milkfish eggs are collected by using fine mesh nets.

12. Milkfish larvae can be reared in indoor or outdoor tanks made of concrete

or fiberglass at full seawater salinity (above 30 ppt). The rotifer

(Brachionus plicatilis) is reared in advance using the nannoflagellate

Nannochloropsis sp. as feed so that it is available once the larvae start

feeding.

13. The eggs are allowed to hatch in hatching tanks and the day-old larvae

transferred to larval rearing tanks at 30 larvae per liter. Feeding starts

once the yolk reserves are consumed (36 hours). Additional live feed in

the form of Artemia nauplii and artificial larval diet are added on the 12th

day.

14. Larval rearing water is changed at the rate of 10% per day during the 2nd

to 10th day and increasing to 50% on the 11th to 15th day and 75% on

the 16th to 20th day and 100% daily from 21st day to harvest. The fry is

marketable at 21 days.

15. Oxygen supply is improved by providing paddlewheel aerators and

maintaining good phytoplankton growth later in the growing period.

Natural food, mainly lab-lab, is grown and used as food in the first 45 to
 60 days of culture in the grow-out ponds and commercial formulated diet

with at least 27% protein is supplied thereafter. This method allows 2 to 3

crops and yields of up to 7.5 tons per ha per year.

Product Storage

Operating/Business Hours

The business will operate from eight (8) o’clock in the morning to five

(5) o’clock in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday. The employees must

wear proper attire including face mask and face shield given to each of them

inside the production site.

Technical Capacity
 Figure 7

Business Process
Business Location

The proposed business will rent a land located at Brgy. San

Pedro (former Poblacion), Morong, Rizal with an area of 1,000 square-meter.

The cost of land is P400,000, and this location is appropriate for the business

for it is accessible to the potential market.

Figure 5

Map of Morong, Rizal

 Figure 6

Vicinity Map
Preparation of the business

The management will monitor the operation of the fish pond and check

the production of milkfish before the business starts the operation to make

sure it is in good condition.

Utilities

Accommodation

Maintenance and Security Features

 Figure 7

Layout of small-scale fish cage showing suspended anchors, nets and

cover for fingerlings

 Figure 8

Layout of Fish pond

Legal Requirements
Machineries and Equipment

Raw materials used

Supplies

Production Cost Per Unit

Source of Utility

Waste Disposal