Catfish breeding and or Fertilized Eggs incubation for the purpose of fry production requires a certain amount of heat temperature.
The ideal temperature is from 25" to 32" Celsius.
To achieve this range of temperature will take into consideration the pond type.
wooden and tarpolin ponds can be ideal pond types.
Concrete ponds is also very adequate as well as plastic hatchery ponds.
Ordinary tarpolin will require more heat energy sources to be provided.
The pond should also be in a house or within some sort of enclosures.
This is to have a kind of room temperature effect.
Some devices like pond heater can be used to electrically increase the water temperature.
It has a thermostat regulator which maintains the required temperature.
A live charcoal in a pot can be used to increase the temperature of the hatching environment.
Others are gas lamp and solar powered gadgets which helps in increasing the water temperature.
The water for the hatching activity is also of paramount importance.
Water high in acid and or salt (alkaline) is not good for the purpose of catfish hatching or breeding.
The ideal water quality is 7.0 to 8.5 pH.
Acidic water pH is adjusted temporarily by using soda ash (sodium carbonate) or sodium bicarbonate at 2 table spoon to 1,000 litres of water.
It can also be acclamatized using Oyster shells in the water reservoir unit.
Water treatment plants of double cylinders and treatment materials and chemicals are used to permanently treat acidic water by installing it to the hatchery water source.
Consideration should also be given to air circulation into the catfish hatching ponds during incubation.
Flow-through (inlet of water and outlet of water at the same rate) is used to make sure there is enough oxygen in the pond
Water aerators and aerating machines are installed to make sure enough bubbled water is generated in the hatchery ponds.
Finally, consideration should also be given to how the waste is removed from the pond.
This can be done using siphoning pipes, or water filtration system.
Whenever the above environmental factors are favourably considered and provided and put to use, the results would be production of hundreds of thousands of catfish frys and fingerlings.