How to Farm Yellow Catfish? A Detailed Explanation of the Key Farming Techniques

Yellow catfish, surely many friends living in rural areas are quite familiar with this kind of fish, and can often see it in some small ponds in the countryside. With people's widespread awareness of the yellow catfish, it is quite popular in the market. Many people want to farm this kind of fish, but they do not yet have much grasp of its farming methods.

How to Farm Yellow Catfish

1. Pond Conditions

The pond bottom is best made of a pond with a mixed mud-and-sand base. The pond must have a drainage outlet and a water inlet, or it may not have one, but the drainage outlet must be present. Then, the amount of water must be sufficient. Two weeks before stocking the fry, the whole pond must be prepared: first clean the pond thoroughly and disinfect the water quality.

2. Farming Management

1. In the earlier period, when feeding, its main food source still relies on preying on small organisms and zooplankton in the pond. When these are no longer enough to meet the growth needs of the yellow catfish, artificial feeding can begin. Some fresh live bait can be prepared and fed, twice a day.

2. Inspect once every morning and evening to check the water quality, fry, and feeding situation. Clean up excess and leftover bait thoroughly, then change the water according to the pollution level and transparency of the water. Generally, unless there are special circumstances, change the water about once every two weeks, then use quicklime or bleaching powder for disinfection.

3. At the end of autumn, preparations for overwintering must be made. After winter arrives, the water temperature will drop below 10 degrees, so insulation work must be done well. At the same time, disinfect the water quality in the pond, also using bleaching powder for disinfection. During the overwintering period, measures such as sweeping snow around the pond, replenishing water, and preventing diseases must be carried out well.

Farming Techniques for Yellow Catfish

1. Pond conditions: Yellow catfish has poor tolerance to low oxygen, so it has relatively high requirements for ecological conditions. Choose a pond with sufficient water sources, fresh water quality, and convenient water filling and drainage, with an area of 2-5 mu, a flat pond bottom, 10-20 cm of silt, and a water depth of 1.5-1.8 m. The pond water inlet should be filtered with a 30-mesh silk screen to prevent wild miscellaneous fish and other harmful organisms from entering.

2. Pond clearing and water cultivation: Half a month before stocking yellow catfish, drain the pond water, and use 125-150 kg of quicklime per mu plus 1.5 kg of crystalline trichlorfon per mu to splash the whole pond for disinfection. After 5-7 days of disinfection, inject new water to about 80 cm, and use 200 kg of fermented chicken manure or cow manure or night soil per mu to cultivate water. After 7-10 days, the fry can be stocked.

3. Fry stocking: Generally, in June, stock yellow catfish summer fry. Require strong physique, no disease or injury, uniform size, and stock 2-4 cm yellow catfish summer fry at 150000-20000 fry per mu. One week after stocking, put in about 200 silver carp and bighead carp fry of about 20 cm per mu to regulate water quality. When stocking the fry, soak and wash them in 3% salt water for 15 minutes.

4. Daily management: When the fry have just been put into the pond, maintain a water depth of 70-80 cm, and later gradually deepen it to 1.5-1.8 m as the water temperature rises. Control the fertility of the pond water and keep transparency at 30-40 cm. Regularly add new water, generally once every 10-15 days. Regulate the pond water quality by splashing quicklime dissolved in water once every half month at 10 kg per mu, and regularly disinfect the water body once a month with sterilizing drugs such as chlorine dioxide.

Feeding Methods for Yellow Catfish

1. Feeding principles: Flexibly control according to the scientific stocking quantity, water quality conditions, and different seasons. Focus on uniform feeding and sufficient feeding, and do not feed in a rigid, uniform way. As far as possible, feed according to the scientific fish-farming principles of the “four fixeds” and “four looks.”

2. Feeding amount: For yellow catfish fry stocked into ponds, the food intake is relatively small at the beginning, and only after 3-5 days will they appear in groups to feed. It is generally believed that if winter fingerlings are stocked, the feeding amount before April is 1%-3% of body weight, and during the peak growth season it is 5%-8% of body weight.

3. Feeding frequency: Feed twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If the pond shows floating-head behavior before dawn, then under oxygenation conditions, appropriately postpone the feeding time; for example, if feeding was originally at 8:00-8:30, change it to 9:00-9:30.

Feed Formulas for Yellow Catfish

1. Formula 1: fish meal 30%, soybean cake 30%, wheat bran 10%, wheat middlings 16%, meat-and-bone meal 1%, minerals 1%, multivitamins 1%, fish oil 1%.

2. Formula 2: fish meal 30%, soybean meal 20%, rapeseed meal 25%, wheat bran 10%, wheat 8%, corn 5%, inorganic salts and others 2%.

3. Formula 3: fish meal 8.5%, soybean cake 25%, rapeseed cake 30%, wheat bran 20%, barley 10%, corn 5%, bone meal 1%, salt 0.5%.

4. Formula 4: fish meal 15%, soybean cake 35%, wheat bran 30%, corn 5%, pagoda tree leaves 5%, barley 8.5%, growth hormone 1%, salt 0.5%.

5. Formula 5: fish meal 10%, soybean cake 25%, rapeseed cake 30%, wheat bran 20%, barley 10%, corn 5%, bone meal 1%, salt 0.5%.

As long as you grasp the growth habits of yellow catfish, farming it is relatively not a very difficult matter. The above also introduces some of its farming methods, hoping to be helpful to everyone. If you have good experience, you are also welcome to share it with us.