It takes about 75-90 days to rear fingerlings. Growing spawn to fry takes 15-21 days and then fry to fingerling size a further 1.5 – 2.5 months. Thus, if spawn is stocked in a nursery on 1 July the fingerlings are usually ready by the end of September. Yet many people who have seasonal ponds like to stock with advanced fingerlings when the pond fills up (usually in July) so that they can harvest a crop of market size fish by November-December.

The “fast fingerling system” can produce advanced fingerlings about two months earlier than they are normally available from fish farms. The farmer uses just one pond for continuous growing until fingerling size is reached, and fewer fish are stocked. A farmer with a small, seasonal pond can produce fingerlings in one month. These can then be sold for a high price because everyone wants fingerlings as early as possible.

The number of spawn stocked is low because it is important that there is no overcrowding. The manuring and feeding schedules are also different. In all other ways the fast fingerling system is similar to normal fingerling rearing. This publication is also available in Oriya.