Design and Development of Demand Feeder for Carp Feeding in Outdoor Culture System

Abstract

Demand fish feeder made-up of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) material was designed and fabricated with an angle of repose 50^o for outdoor culture systems. The feeder was found suitable for feeding pelleted feed, maintenance free and easy for operation. The feeder was fabricated with general-purpose tools at a cost of Rs. 3,100 (US $ 69) in 2007. It was tested in the cisterns of CIFA farm for a period of 120 days to evaluate its efficiency against hand feeding to the fishes. Fish fed by demand feeder gained an average of 12.61% more weight than hand-fed fish. Details of design and fabrication of the feeder are discussed in the paper.