● Now stocking · Site 3 grow-out cages
Farming fish where the water already is.
Avorio raises Nile tilapia and African catfish in floating net cages across open lake water — no ponds to dig, no land to clear. The current does the work a pump would otherwise do.
46
Cages In Water
3
Lake Sites
1,850t
harvested / year
12
Years Farming
Why cages
The lake is the infrastructure.
A pond needs digging, lining, and a pump to move water through it. A cage needs a frame, a net, and a current. We anchor ours in open water that was already moving, already oxygenated, and already there.
Flow
The current does the flushing
Waste and uneaten feed pass straight through the mesh instead of settling on a pond floor, so the water inside a cage stays closer to the water outside it.
Density
More fish per litre, safely
Constant exchange lets us hold higher stocking densities than a static pond of the same volume, without the oxygen crashes that come with crowding still water.
Control
One net change stops one problem
Mesh size is the main lever we pull — grading fish by size, keeping predators out, and letting us move a whole stock to a clean cage instead of treating a whole pond.
The production cycle
From fingerling to harvest, four moves.
Every fish we sell has passed through the same four stages, in the same order. The order is the point — skip one and the next one fails.
Fingerlings
Fry are hatched and graded on land before they ever touch the lake, so only uniform, healthy fingerlings make the trip out to the cages.
stageFingerlings
durationWeek 0
mesh sizen/a (land-based)
feed / day6–8x / day
stockingn/a
Nursery cage
Fine mesh keeps fingerlings in and predators out while they build size. Feed is hand-cast in small, frequent portions to match their small mouths.
stageNursery cage
durationWeek 1–6
mesh size8mm
feed / day6x / day
stocking~1,000 / m³
Grow-out cage
Once fish clear the nursery mesh, they’re moved to larger cages at lower density, where they take most of their weight over five to six months.
stageGrow-out cage
durationMonth 2–7
mesh size20mm
feed / day3–4x / day
stocking~150 / m³
Harvest
Fish are seine-netted live, graded by weight on the water, then chilled or transported live depending on the buyer’s order.
stageHarvest
durationMonth 7–8
mesh sizeseine net
feed / day—
stockingn/a
What’s in the water
Two species, matched to two markets.
We keep the species list short on purpose — both are proven cage performers in warm, moving freshwater, and both leave the farm within a day of harvest.
Nile Tilapia
Oreochromis niloticus
Our highest-volume fish. Tolerant of dense stocking, fast to grow out, and sold whole to local markets within hours of harvest.
African Catfish
African Catfish
Hardier under low-oxygen conditions and higher stocking rates, farmed alongside tilapia at our deeper sites for the smoked-fish trade.
What we measure
The water is the feed, filter, and climate control.
Cage farming borrows the lake’s water quality — which means we watch it more closely than a pond farmer would ever need to. Readings are taken at each site, twice daily.
Parameter
Target range
Why it matters
Dissolved oxygen
5–8 mg/L
Below 3 mg/L, tilapia stop feeding within hours
Temperature
27–30°C
Growth slows sharply outside this band
pH
6.5–8.5
Wide tolerance, but swings stress fish more than levels
Current flow
0.05–0.3 m/s
Too slow and waste settles; too fast and fish burn feed swimming against it
Feed conversion
1.5–1.7 : 1
Feed cost is the single largest input, so this is the number we track hardest
Where we farm
Three sites, chosen for depth and current.
Every site was surveyed for water depth, flow, and distance from shore before a single cage went in. Shallow, still water isn’t worth the frame cost.
Site 1 — North Bay
9–11m depth · 18 cages
Our original site and the deepest, reserved for grow-out cages carrying our largest tilapia stock.
Site 2 — Mid Channel
6–8m depth · 16 cages
Faster current here suits catfish, which handle the stronger flow without extra feed cost.
Site 3 — Sheltered Cove
4–5m depth · 12 cages
Calmer water makes this our nursery site, where fingerlings spend their first six weeks.
Get in touch
Order fish, fingerlings, or a site visit.
We sell live and fresh fish direct from the lake, supply graded fingerlings to other cage farmers, and take visitors out to the cages by arrangement.
Location
Plot 220, Block 555, Muvo, Kyaggwe, Mukono District, Uganda
Phone
+256 759 325099
Email
admin@avoriofish.farm
Hours
Mon–Sat, 7:00–17:00
We reply to every order inquiry within one working day.