With cannibalism, fish cause wounds on other fish and is a major reason for reduction in stock of fish where in the end, you harvest fish that is less than the quantity of fingerlings that you stocked at the beginning.
Causes of cannibalism
Over stocking where farmers stock ponds with fish that is greater than the stocking density of the pond. Even at fingerlings level, have your pond stocked with the appropriate stocking density. If you cant estimate the stocking density of the pond its better to under than over stock.
Irregular feeding is another cause of cannibalism. If the fish are not well fed i.e. when they have times when they are starved, the hunger in them will drive them to end up eating the other.
When feeding, ensure that you feed the fish with quality feed i.e. don’t just feed the fish on anything but ensure that you obtain and feed them on quality feed.
Stocking irregular sizes where farmers stock fingerlings without sorting them. This is common with small scale farmers with a limited number of ponds. This also affects you in that you cant tell exactly the size of feed to feed them since you have different fish sizes.
