What Feed to Give Catfish in Aquaculture? A Detailed Explanation of Catfish Farming Techniques

We all know that catfish is extremely rich in nutritional value, and catfish contains a variety of minerals and trace elements, so eating catfish regularly is also of great help to the human body. Catfish is actually also a very precious nutritional delicacy, and can be compared with shark fin and wild soft-shelled turtle, making it a rare treasure among fish. So many people nowadays have started farming catfish. Today I will introduce some catfish farming techniques for you.

What to Feed Farmed Catfish

1. Catfish is a carnivorous fish, and its prey is mostly small fish, such as Hemiculter leucisculus, crucian carp, gobies, topmouth gudgeon, common carp, loach, etc., and it also eats shrimp and aquatic insects. It mainly swallows its food, and the role of its teeth is mainly to prevent food from escaping. Catfish can also eat large green earthworms, beef and mutton, mole crickets, grasshoppers, cutworms, tree worms, grass worms, and praying mantises, small frogs, toads, etc.

2. Catfish is commonly known as pond loach catfish, also called bearded catfish, sticky fish, pond loach catfish, and live-bearing fish. Catfish relatives are distributed almost all over the world, and most species live in freshwater such as ponds or rivers, but some species live in the ocean. Generally, the body has no scales, with a flat head and a large mouth, and several long barbels around the mouth, which can be used to distinguish taste; this is its characteristic.

Catfish Farming Techniques

1. Before releasing the fry, the pond must be disinfected. There are two methods. The first is the dry pond method: drain or pump out the pond water, expose it to the sun, then evenly spread quicklime over the whole pond at a rate of 75g per sq m. On the first day, inject new water, leave it for 4-5 days, then replace with new water and leave it for another 2-3 days before releasing the fry. The second is the water-retaining method: use 220g of quicklime per cubic meter of pond water, slake the quicklime into a slurry, and splash it evenly over the whole pond while hot. After the toxicity of the quicklime disappears, begin fertilizing the water quality.

2. After the fish pond is disinfected, about one week before releasing the fry, begin fertilizing the water quality. After the water reaches 0.9 m, biogas residue can be used as the base fertilizer for the fish pond, applying about 250g of biogas residue per sq m of fish pond.

3. Fry stocked for 6 days should be uninjured, disease-free, healthy and lively. The size of the fingerlings should be above 3 cm and as consistent as possible to avoid cannibalism. In daily management, disease prevention is especially important, and fish body disinfection must be done when the fry are released. The method is to dilute 1 kg of salt with 30 kg of water, soak the fry in the salt water for 5 minutes, and only then can they be released.

The Difference Between Silver Carp and Catfish

1. Catfish: Catfish belongs to the animal kingdom, Chordata, Vertebrata, Actinopterygii, Siluriformes, Siluridae, Silurus, catfish species. Silver carp: Silver carp belongs to the animal kingdom, Chordata, Vertebrata, Actinopterygii, Cypriniformes, Cyprinoidei, Cyprinidae, Hypophthalmichthyinae, Hypophthalmichthys, silver carp species.

2. Catfish: Catfish lives in the middle and lower layers and is a nocturnal animal. It is a carnivorous fish, and its prey is mostly small fish. It mainly swallows its food, and the role of its teeth is mainly to prevent food from escaping.

3. Silver carp: Silver carp belongs to the middle and upper layers of the water and is a typical filter-feeding fish. It relies on the special structure of its gills to filter plankton from the water and feeds on plankton throughout its life. At the fry stage, it mainly eats zooplankton, and when it grows to more than 1.5 cm, it gradually switches to eating phytoplankton.

Disease Prevention in Catfish

1. In the process of farming pond catfish, the most harmful disease is viral hemorrhagic disease. This disease mostly appears one month after the fry are released, when they weigh about 50g. Sick fish develop blisters on the body surface, congestion at the base of the fins, and rot. In severe cases, the whole body becomes ulcerated, and at this point large numbers of dead fish appear until the whole stock is wiped out.

2. Therefore, quicklime should be regularly mixed with water and splashed over the whole pond, using 15g of lime per sq m, for 15 consecutive days as one course. If this disease appears, in most cases there is no way to bring the condition under control. For this disease, the only option is to use medication regularly in daily management and focus on prevention.

3. During the rearing period, common diseases also include gas bubble disease, enteritis, ichthyophthiriasis, saprolegniasis, black body disease, trichodiniasis, gyrodactyliasis, etc. To prevent and treat fish diseases, drugs such as bleaching powder and quicklime can often be used to disinfect the food.

In the article above, we have all learned that the dietary therapeutic effects and medicinal value of catfish are very high, and are not possessed by other fish. Therefore, in terms of market demand, catfish also has a very large advantage. Moreover, relatively speaking, catfish farming methods are also relatively simple.