FAISALABAD, Oct 4: As many as 30 new indoor water tanks are near completion to provide a predator-free culture for fish seed production at the Faisalabad Fish Hatchery.

Dr Muhammad Ashraf, the FFH deputy director, said here on Wednesday the fisheries department had launched “Introduction of Intensive Rearing of Fish Fry” project at an estimated cost of Rs7.5 million.

Under this project, a total of 30 new indoor water tanks are being constructed in a three-storey building. “Out of it, 24 will serve as feed tanks while the remaining six will be to rear fish seed,” he said and added that these tanks would be predator free with controlled environment and temperature for the safe rearing of fish seed.

He said each tank would have the capacity of producing 50,000 one-inch fish seed. He said four crops would be harvested every year and thus these tanks would produce an additional quantity of 1,200,000 fish seed every year.

Dr Ashraf said the fish seed of Gulfam variety would be hatched in the new ponds while other traditional local and Chinese varieties would be reared in these ponds within next couple of months.

About fish production, he said high salt concentration in water was detrimental to the fish production and most of the fish farmers in the district have been forced to abandon this business.

“Only 20-25 fish farms out of 85 in Faisalabad are productive,” he said and added that experiments were being conducted to control salt concentration to revive the fish culture in this district. — APP