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Fish · tilapia fry & fingerling

Tilapia fry and fingerling feed: size steps and consistency

Tilapia fry and fingerling feeds are crumbles and small extruded pellets stepped up as fish grow. Volumes are small relative to grow-out, so buyers specify particle-size steps, floating behaviour and batch documentation, and order in frequent small lots.

Submit a feed project requestAll feed stages

Who buys at this stage

  • Hatcheries and nursery units buying graded crumbles continuously
  • Grow-out farms raising their own fingerlings
  • Buyers contracting fingerling and grow-out feed under one agreement

Form and packaging

  • Particle-size steps and the fish sizes they correspond to
  • Floating or sinking behaviour stated explicitly
  • Small bags with production date and shelf life marked

Commercial feed types

Crumbles

Graded sizes for fry and early fingerlings.

Small extruded pellets

Typically floating, stepped from around 1–2 mm upward as the fish grow.

What the RFQ must specify

  • Fry or fingerlings stocked per cycle and nursery duration
  • Size steps required and expected duration on each
  • Floating behaviour and stability requirement
  • Quantity per shipment and committed annual volume
  • Delivery point, port and preferred Incoterm
  • Delivery schedule and acceptable lead time
  • Packaging and pallet or bulk handling constraints
  • Certifications and documents required with each shipment
  • Currency, price basis and how long the price must hold

What moves the cost

  • Protein source pricing, marine and plant
  • Extrusion and screening cost for small sizes
  • Freight relative to small order volumes
  • Shelf life, which caps order size

Storage and shelf life

  • Small, frequent lots suit shelf life better than bulk buying
  • Dry, ventilated, off-floor storage; humidity is the main enemy
  • Rotate strictly by production date

Certifications and documents to ask for

  • GMP+ B1 / FAMI-QS or an equivalent feed safety scheme
  • HACCP plan and the mill's own quality manual
  • Certificate of analysis per batch (proximate analysis, moisture)
  • Mycotoxin, salmonella and heavy-metal testing regime
  • Traceability of raw materials and batch numbering
  • Non-GMO, halal or organic certification where your market requires it
  • Country-specific feed registration and import documentation

Supplier evaluation checklist

  • Installed capacity against your monthly tonnage, not just the annual total
  • Evidence of supplying the same stage and pellet form commercially
  • Batch consistency record and how out-of-spec batches are handled
  • Lead time from order to delivery, and behaviour during raw-material volatility
  • Price basis: fixed, indexed to a named raw material, or reviewed periodically
  • Delivery capability to your point, Incoterm and vehicle or vessel constraints
  • Technical support available on-site and the escalation route when results slip

Worked commercial example

Illustrative arithmetic on the inputs shown — not a benchmark, a price or a performance promise. Replace every figure with your own.

  • · 500,000 fingerlings stocked, 45 days on fingerling feed
  • · Average intake 3% of body weight, 1 g to 20 g
  • · Delivered crumble price 1,050 per tonne
  • → Fingerling feed ≈ 14 t per batch
  • → Cost ≈ 14,700 per batch at the price entered
  • → Order in 3–4 lots so nothing sits past its shelf life

Other fish stages

Tilapia grow-out feedCatfish grow-out feedSalmon grow-out feedTrout grow-out feedSeabass grow-out feedSeabream grow-out feed

Questions buyers ask

How is fingerling feed volume planned?
From fingerlings stocked, the duration on each size step and expected conversion at that stage. Because volumes are small, buyers usually contract fingerling feed together with grow-out volume rather than separately.
Floating or sinking fingerling feed?
Floating feed lets you observe intake and adjust feeding, which is why many tilapia operations prefer it. State the requirement in the RFQ so offers are comparable.
Does FeedMatch supply the feed itself?
No. FeedMatch is not a manufacturer or trader. It prepares the requirement, approaches qualified suppliers after an internal review and normalises the offers you receive.

How the request is handled

You submit the requirement, a person at FeedMatch reviews it, and only then are qualified suppliers approached on your behalf. Offers come back normalised to the same delivered basis so they can actually be compared. No supplier receives your details automatically and no introduction happens without that review.

Submit a feed project request

FeedMatch Group is an independent, supplier-neutral procurement platform. We are not a feed manufacturer, trader, nutritionist, veterinarian or lender, and we do not guarantee prices, supply, FCR or animal performance. Figures on this page are indicative commercial planning ranges, not specifications. Every requirement is reviewed by a person before any supplier is approached, and no supplier receives your details automatically. Last reviewed 16 September 2026.

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