Back yard farming: Fish turned out to be tadpoles

 

I love Fish either on the table or in the water. These are words of Charles Mulamata Kayonga, having succeeded in farming fish in his back yard at home in Rubaga a Kampala suburb. 

 

An electronic engineer by Profession, Mulamata has always natured the love for fish hence fish farming.

 

How he started

Mulamata and his family started fish farming some time last year but there efforts were paid off in May this year. 

 

They started with about 50 cat fish but didn’t live its birthday. ”The people who were looking after this fish eat some and  ran away, because of poor administration and even predators ate the remaining fish,” said Mulamata adding that they still  natured the love for fish.

 

 

“I decided to do simple research on the internet about fish farming, and I discovered that is could still have fish in my back yard.

 

So I looked at the technology, studied it for three to four months, then I started experimenting with the old gadgets I had at home” Mulamata recalls.

 

 

He decided to use his old fridge at home, by first blocking the holes and pumped in water.

But earlier on, He had acquired an aquarium which he unknowingly bought  at 20,000 shillings plus its fish which died the following day, due to lack of oxygen.

 

When Mulamata decided to buy an aerator to pump oxygen into his water tank, he sought the advice of a young man who was selling an aquarium. “When I talked to a young, man who was selling aquarium, he promised he to get it for me at 20,000 shillings. So I gave him the money and he left behind his aquarium with its fish promising to pick as he delivers the aerator, the man never returned, he had sold me his aquarium plus its fish at 20,000shillinsg,”

 

The following day the fish had died due to lack of Oxygen. He decided to keep the glass and kept on changing the water adds Mulamata.

 

Despite the above set back, he didn’t give up, he kept on searching on the internet and landed on something called Aquaponix, which means that using the available containers, and one could farm fish in the back yard and also grow vegetables as a bonus.

 

He started experimenting by getting some fish from a Friend and putting it in a glass that was left behind by the young man who failed to get him an aerator.

 

But then he had to pump in more water and Oxygen, but didn’t know where to source an actual pump for this purpose, so he improvised by getting a small pump from fuel tankers in Vehicles.

 

The pump would pump water in the grow bed that is next to the fish container, for vegetable and fruit growing. But that was not all, he wanted to create a timer such that pump would pump water intermittently.

 

“Much as am an electronic engineer, I didn’t want to go into making switches and sockets,  I remembered that in the car still, there is a flusher which acts as a timer. It can flush at an interval,”

 

He decided to get one and modify to increase its speed such that it could flush for 30 minutes and then rest for fifteen minutes, a trick that worked well and is still being used to date.

 

At this point, Mulamata was succeeding in becoming a fish farmer.

 

 

Having realized success, Mulamata and his wife become so enthusiastic, and decided to add in some more fish from Kabaka’s lake.

 

But because the fish were too tiny, they found their way in the water pump through the holes on the tank, that takes out fish waste to the grow bed, for vegetable growing.

 

The following day, the fish had clogged the pump and were dead because they lacked oxygen while inside the pump, that is when the old fridge became handy.

 

“We transferred the big fish that had survived to the old fridge but this fish started sprouting legs.

But one fish developed small legs the other big ones, I thought that may be two three tadpoles found their way in the tank. I decided to be patient, as we continued feeding them on expensive fish feeds from Ugachick but eventually, the “fish” turned out to be tadpoles,”

 

Having observed the disappointment on her husband’s face, Mrs Mulamata advised her husband to visit Kajjansi to get quality and real fish flies.

 

“All along I was experimenting and my wife was looking on curiously not taking a very active part so she suggested we go to Kajjansi and get real fish, indeed, we found real fish, it was even bigger in size and was cheap. Each was going for 200 shillings so we bout 600 of them,”

 

Six months down the road.Mulamata is a happy man. “I harvest my fish for the table and love looking at them in water. But we have learnt a lot in fish farming. I love fish either on the table or in the water; the bonus is that it gives very fresh vegetables which we can eat along with the fish.

 

The waste which is pumped on top of the grow bed provides enough minerals and fertilizers that facilitate the quick growth of vegetables such as Amaranths (Dodo), Sukuma