Are Catfish Easy to Raise? Good Farming Management Is the Key
AbstractCatfish are easy to raise. Catfish have strong adaptability to the environment, but the water for farming catfish must be clear and free of pollution. Before stocking, disinfect the pond and fertilize the water, select healthy, disease-free, high-quality fry for stocking, ensure that feed is fed scientifically and reasonably, promptly carry out breeding management work and disease prevention work, do a good job of patrolling the pond every day, add and change water in time, increase oxygen, and promote the growth of fry.
Are Catfish Easy to Raise?
Catfish, also called Chinese catfish, mostly live in the middle and lower layers of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. They are carnivorous fish and are the most widely distributed fish in the catfish family. Their requirements for the environment are not very high, and they have strong adaptability, so they are relatively easy to farm.
Catfish Farming Techniques
1. Growing environment
Ponds for farming catfish require clear, pollution-free water. To ensure good water quality, plant an appropriate amount of aquatic plants such as water hyacinth on the water surface to provide shade for the fry and also help regulate water quality.
2. Preparation before stocking
30 days before stocking fry, disinfect the pond with quicklime; 7 days before stocking fry, spread an appropriate amount of base fertilizer into the pond to fertilize the water, promote the reproduction and growth of plankton in the pond, and provide sufficient bait for the fry.
3. Fry selection and stocking
Select fry that are free of injury and disease, healthy and lively, with a size of more than 3cm, and uniform in size. Before stocking, mix salt and water evenly at a ratio of 1:30, then put the fry in and soak them for about 5 minutes.
Choose a sunny day for stocking. The stocking density is generally controlled at 6000-10000 fish/mu. After stocking, add new water and a small amount of chemical fertilizer to the pond once every 2-3 days to ensure water quality and promote fry growth.
4. Feed feeding
Use cooked egg yolk or small cladocerans and copepod plankton as the fry's first food. As the fry continue to grow, they can be fed water fleas, mosquito larvae, tubifex, maggots, or pig blood, artificial fry compound feed, and so on.
In the early stage of fry rearing, mainly animal feed is fed. When the fry grow to 5-7cm, carry out food training and gradually switch to plant feed, combining animal and plant feed to ensure balanced nutrition.
Feed feeding follows the “four fixed” principles. The daily feeding amount is controlled at about 5-8% of the total weight of the fish school, and the feeding amount is adjusted once every 7-15 days.
5. Breeding management
Catfish enter their peak breeding period from March to May every year. Select well-matured female and male brood fish, group them at 3 male fish and 1 female fish, and put them into a cloth net.
Before collecting eggs, first check the softness of the female fish's abdomen by hand and gently squeeze it. If egg grains are discharged, the dry method can be used for egg collection. If no egg grains are produced after pressing by hand, wait for a period of time before checking again.
Wrap the female brood fish that can release eggs with gauze, face its genital pore toward a clean, waterless porcelain container used for egg collection, and gently squeeze along the direction of the female fish's anus by hand, and the egg grains will slowly fall into the container.
After egg collection is completed, stir the already prepared sperm suspension with the fry, then add an appropriate amount of clean water, wash off the excess sperm, and repeat several times to complete artificial insemination.
The fertilized eggs are round spheres that are greenish-yellow with slight red dots, with a diameter of about 1.65-1.8mm. At first they are not sticky, and only after 20 minutes do they become sticky. Therefore, before they become sticky, spread them on egg attachment sheets and gently stir with a feather to ensure the fertilized eggs attach evenly and improve the hatching rate.
6. Disease prevention
Change the pond water frequently, changing 1/3 of the pond water every 10-15 days, to ensure excellent pond water quality and prevent fry from getting sick.
One month after fry stocking, when they weigh about 50g, they are prone to viral fin rot, which is extremely harmful to the fish school. 10000 units of bleaching powder can be splashed over the whole pond for preventive treatment.
During the farming process, splash 4000 units of crystal trichlorfon or 6000-7000 units of copper sulfate and ferrous sulfate mixture at 5:2 into the pond to prevent parasitic diseases.
Do not feed spoiled or moldy feed to the fish school. Regularly add 0.05-0.1% fresh garlic juice to the feed fed to the fry, and add 20-100g of oxytetracycline powder per kilogram of feed, continuously feeding for 5-7 days, which can prevent and treat enteritis.
During the rearing process, ensure clean water quality, do not use fertilizer that has not been fermented, and splash 2-4g/m³ of gallnut and quicklime water into the pond once every other day, continuously splashing 2-3 times, which can effectively prevent and treat black body disease.
7. Daily management
Persist in patrolling the pond every day and change the pond water frequently to ensure good water quality; if fry jump out of the water surface, it indicates that the water is too fertile and the oxygen content in the water is low. Add new water to the pond in time, release the old water, and put sufficient live bait into the pond.
In stuffy hot weather or thunderstorms, promptly add new water to the pond and increase oxygen to provide catfish with an excellent growing environment and promote their growth and development.