A Yogyakarta-based Startup Offer Touch of Technology in Shrimp Ponds

The technology startup or startup MSMB is developing the intensification of high-tech fish pond farming. Compared to conventional shrimp farming, for example, this Yogyakarta-based startup promises a 4-5-fold stocking capacity with 10-fold production with the same pond area.

“We start from a pool that can be knocked down in a circle with a Lego-like installation so that the installation process only takes 1-3 days depending on the diameter of the pool 10-20 meters,” Rico Wisnu Wibisono, CEO of FisTx, explained when contacted on Thursday, July 2, 2020.

A pool that can be disassembled is one thing. But the circular shape is something else. According to Rico, the form was chosen because of its superiority for oxygen mixing and better feed distribution. Combined with a technique called the mushroom shrimp toilet, the FisTx pool is said to be able to maintain water quality and hence shrimp health.

“Self-cleaning techniques can replace the function of farmers or officers who have to go down to the pond so as to minimize disease transmission from outside the pond,” Rico said.

Like a coronavirus, the shrimp disease virus is known to be highly contagious, and deadly, in aquaculture ponds. They can be transmitted by riding aerosols in the wind in the practice of waterwheels in the pond, carried by farmers who move between ponds or even seep between ponds.

“Disease is still the biggest problem in shrimp farming. If you have the disease, you can run out (die) all of the shrimp,” said the 30-year-old man who grew up in the shrimp farming family.

FisTx also Develops Aquagram

Not just pond engineering, FisTx also developed Aquagram, a water check tool, which is connected to the FisTx application. Both are connected via MIFI and display daily water quality monitoring data that has been processed on the MSMB cloud server on the available dashboards.

Applications that contain data on water quality and shrimp growth, treat pond or pond applications, and other daily activities entered separately are considered very useful not only for the farmer. “But it can also be used for reports to insurance and banks as guarantors and to financiers as the safety of fishery products produced,” he said.

Currently, according to Rico, technology has begun to be applied in private ponds in Yogyakarta and aquaculture ponds in Trenggalek, East Java. Following this, he added, in Situbondo – also East Java – with the millennial shrimp program being carried out by the local government.

In the experimental pool at Samas Beach, Bantul, Yogyakarta, FisTx technology is calculated to produce 5-6 quintals of shrimp/pond with a diameter of 10 meters or an area of ​​78 m2. Rico compares it with conventional ponds or ponds with the same size pool, “being able to 50 kilograms is good.”

He considered the production difference to be very appropriate for the initial investment scheme offered by Rico et al at the FisTx startup, which reached Rp 3-80 million (the selling price of pond construction). “Now it is still in the process of testing in the actual pool and we will prove it in the next three months,” Rico said again.

About FisTx that You Should Know

This application was launched at Balai Srigading Samas Beach Sanden District, Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta, in an event titled Democratization of Fisheries in the Industrial Era 4.0. The FisTx application is said to have advantages in recording and cultivating efficiency, as well as access for partners and target end-users.

Through this platform, farmers can find out the condition of their ponds and get recommendations for appropriate treatment in fish and shrimp farming. Some of the advantages offered by FisTx are FisTx Oasse Pond (portable pool), Baracuda, FisTx Aquagram (an autonomous water quality measurement tool) which is equipped with 5 sensors.

In addition, there are probiotics and multivitamins to support the quality of cultivation which includes FisTx Rhodoplus, FisTx Bactoplus, FisTx Super Aqua, and FisTx Chemo Attraktant.