Catfish cultivation in tarpaulin ponds is still of interest to small and medium scale farmers. One of them is a group of cultivators in Parangargo Village, Wagir District, Malang Regency. However, catfish farming activities carried out by the community in Parangargo Village are still seen as a side or supporting economic activity, not yet their main job. This is due to the number of ponds owned, the resulting profit margin is considered to be still small, in addition to a number of other challenges such as high feed costs, risk of failure due to death, cannibalism and disease.

Efforts that may be made to increase success in cultivating catfish include using appropriate alternative feed, good water quality management. In an effort to overcome the problems faced by cultivators in Parangargo Village, Lecturers in the Aquaculture Study Program at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang continue to provide cultivation assistance.

After receiving strengthening of the cultivation system using the solar cell and biona system by Riza Rahman Hakim and the team, now the cultivator group has received strengthening in the use of probiotic applications and water quality management. Strengthening and assisting cultivation was carried out by Hariyadi, Dony Prasetyo and Anis Zubaidah with the theme of probiotic application and water quality management.

There are so many probiotics that have been circulating in the market, but until now it has been difficult for the public to evaluate the performance of these probiotics in increasing the productivity of aquaculture. Farmers in Parangargo Village are taught how to choose good probiotics, how to culture them and apply them in aquaculture ponds. Appropriate application of probiotics will increase the efficiency of feed use, maintain water quality, and improve growth performance.

After training and mentoring for 4 months a number of cultivators have shown very good results which are marked by increased production yields. The average feed conversion ratio in a number of farmers improved to 1.2 while the survival rate or the percentage of live fish increased from 83% to 91%. In addition, the biomass produced per square meter has also increased to 320 kg. With an increase in cultivation performance, it certainly provides more benefits for cultivators. Of course, this increase in production needs to be continued by continuing to provide assistance and studies in the next 3 to 5 cycles.