Disadvantage And Mistakes In Buying Collapsible Mobile Tarpaulin Fish Pond
If you are thinking of using tarpaulin fish pond to raise your fishes, then you may wish to learn about some costly mistakes to avoid and precautions to take when buying collapsible mobile tarpaulin fish pond.
But before that;
What is the disadvantage of Mobile Tarpaulin Fish Pond?
The major disadvantage of mobile tarpaulin fish pond is that, if you buy a low quality of tarpaulin or if you buy from the wrong vendor, you run the risk of having it break and pouring out your fishes when stocked. This is why it is usually advised that fish pond tarpaulins should be bought directly from the website of Benuwatts Company Limited, the largest manufacturers of fish pond tarpaulins in Nigeria.
Refer to point 5 at the end of this post for further explanation.
Now, in order to avoid making unnecessary mistakes;
What are important tips when buying mobile tarpaulin fish pond?
- Insist on “reinforced tarpaulin mobile fish pond”.
This is the most important factor that you must put into consideration before you decide to use mobile tarpaulin fish pond for your farm.
There are different types of tarpaulin that have been in the market. There are the normal ones used in making tents (like semi-permanent church/fellowship and other event centres), there are the ones used in making canopies (that people rent for traditional marriages) and there even other types used in making car parks.
They are all of different qualities and serve different purposes
Simply put, if it is not reinforced tarpaulin, don’t buy!
2. Buy the mobile fish pond tarpaulin and set it up yourself (it is way cheaper this way).
Now this may sound a bit more stressful but what you get to save at the end is worth it.
I am a DIY (Do It Yourself) person and I have never bought tarpaulin fish pond from vendors who have to transport both themselves, the tarpaulins and the galvanized pipes all the way down to my location to set everything up.
There is no need for such unnecessary cost and logistics.
From records, you get to save roughly N15,000to N20,000 per pond if you buy the tarpaulins and set them up yourself.
What I would recommend is that you buy the tarpaulins (this can be done online on Benuwatts website) and engage an average road-side welder (or carpenter) around you to set them up for you.
To serve as an easy guide to you and your welder in setting up the tarpaulins, you can ask Benuwatts for some installation video guides after purchase.
- Negotiate for discount when buying fish pond tarpaulin in bulk
When buying up to ten or more fish pond tarpaulins, it is good practice to ask for a discount.
From my experience with Benuwatts, they almost always gave some sort of discount or bonus whenever we (I and other members of my farmers cooperative) bought in bulk.
If you intend to really raise fishes in large quantity, you will need up to 10 tarpaulin ponds after all, so why not buy them at once and negotiate some cut. Even if it is 1 per cent discount, it is something.
- Smaller-sized mobile tarpaulin fish ponds are better than one big size
It is usually better to have more than one tarpaulin (of smaller sizes) than one big tarpaulin.
If, for example, you wish to raise about 1000 catfish to maturity and need tarpaulin fish pond for that, you can go for a tarpaulin that has the capacity to house 1000 table-size fishes.
However, it is always advisable to have two or even three ponds when starting out in order to have the opportunity to sort (or separate) your fishes on the basis of their sizes.
Else, the shoot outs (the fishes that quickly grow bigger than others) will begin to feed on the others.
So, instead of buying just one large 1000-capacity tarpaulin to house all your fishes from fingerlings/juvenile to table size (adult size), you should buy two or three smaller tarpaulins so that you can sort into the other tarpaulin ponds as the fingerlings/juveniles grow.
Mind you, the more space the fishes have to swim around, the better the results you will get in terms of size and weight of the fishes within a set period of time.
- Buy your mobile tarpaulin fish pond from a trusted supplier
I have tried to highlight this point in my other short article titled “Disadvantage of Mobile Tarpaulin Fish Pond”.
The thing is that, from around late 2016, lots of people have been flooding the market with fake tarpaulin ponds, and with that have come lots of complaints about mobile tarpaulin ponds (hence the disadvantage).
There are several people who have complained of how they bought tarpaulin ponds from several vendors only for the ponds to break up in about two months.
I knew about mobile tarpaulin ponds since year 2012 when it was pioneered by Benuwatts Tarpaulin Ponds. But like is typical of Nigeria, any good product soon gets overrun by imitations peddled by desperate, unruly or just naïve individuals.
If you truly want to use mobile tarpaulin pond and enjoy it, do yourself some favour and stick to Benuwatts.