How to Raise Mandarin Fish? A Detailed Guide to Practical Farming Techniques

The mandarin fish, also known as gui yu or osmanthus fish, is a very delicious fish with tender flesh and extremely high nutritional value, making it a rather prized freshwater fish. As consumer demand for mandarin fish grows day by day, farming mandarin fish has also become a fairly popular farming project. So do you know how to farm mandarin fish?

How to Raise Mandarin Fish

The mandarin fish is a freshwater fish that likes to inhabit clean still water or water with a slight current, especially lakes with lush aquatic plants, and is suitable for pond farming.

The farm should have an adequate water source and a good supply of quality water, preferably unpolluted river water, lake water or water from large reservoirs. For adult mandarin fish farming, the pond area should preferably be 6-8 mu. A pond that is too large is hard to manage; a pond that is too small makes the water quality prone to deterioration, which in severe cases causes oxygen deficiency and often leads to disease in the mandarin fish. The water depth should be kept at 1.5-1.8 m. The pond bottom should maintain 15-20 cm of loamy silt. For newly dug fish ponds with no silt or sandy silt, an appropriate amount of organic fertilizer can be applied to enhance the buffering capacity of the water body and cultivate suitable water quality. For old ponds with excessive silt, the overly deep silt must be removed before stocking. The pond bottom should have a certain slope, with a 30 cm fish-collecting pit at the low point to make harvesting easier. The pond embankment should also be built as a slope so that aquatic plants or aquatic vegetables can be planted along the pond edge.

Mandarin Fish Farming Techniques

1. Pond conditions: The pond area is generally 2-4 mu, with a water depth of about 2 m, mainly rectangular in shape, with clear water quality, little or no bottom mud, and complete drainage, irrigation and aeration equipment.

2. Forage fish cultivation: Based on the principles of good palatability and low economic cost, fry and fingerlings of silver crucian carp, white crucian carp, blunt snout bream, silver carp, bighead carp and other fish can be selected as forage fish. Use the idle period before stocking the osmanthus fish pond to cultivate early-stage forage fish; you can breed crucian carp or bream fry and fingerlings yourself, or put in various fry about 20 days before the osmanthus fish are stocked, at a stocking rate of 400,000-600,000 fish per mu. They are fed with soybean milk or other feed; in the middle and late stages, the forage fish must be raised in dedicated ponds, preferably using the method of high-density rearing in multiple ponds, harvesting in batches and gradually thinning them out, to ensure that the forage fish and the mandarin fish grow in sync.

3. Mandarin fish fingerling stocking: The stocking time is generally June, and the stocking size should preferably be 6-10 cm, which has the advantages of a high survival rate and fast growth after stocking. Generally, the stocking rate is 500-800 fish per mu.

4. Forage fish feeding: During the adult fish farming period, the fish should be able to eat their fill every day. If there are too few forage fish and the mandarin fish go hungry, this will affect the growth of the osmanthus fish or cause them to kill one another.

5. Water quality regulation: The water quality of the mandarin fish pond must be well regulated, with frequent water changes. June-September is the high-temperature season and the peak feeding period, so water should be added and drained once a week, with 0.4 m of water changed each time, keeping the pond water transparency above 40 cm.

Selection of Feed Fish

1. Early-stage forage fish: In the pond where osmanthus fish are to be stocked, pre-stock 1-2 million fry (fish fry) per mu of silver carp, bighead carp, mud carp, mud carp, Thai mud carp, crucian carp and other fish as early-stage forage fish for the osmanthus fish. Feed them with coarse feed such as peanut bran and wheat bran. After 15-20 days of cultivation, when the forage fish grow to a body length of 1.5-2.5 cm, disinfect and deworm them with 0.7 ppm copper sulfate and 0.5 ppm strong chlorine preparation, and then 2-3 cm osmanthus fish fry can be stocked for rearing.

2. Mid-stage forage fish: In ponds of the four major Chinese carps, polyculture 200,000-300,000 fry per mu of mud carp, mud carp, Thai mud carp and other fish, or cultivate silver carp, bighead carp, crucian carp and other fry in dedicated ponds as forage fish for large-size osmanthus fish.

3. Late-stage forage fish: Besides self-production, they can also be purchased externally. The late farming period generally enters winter, and mud carp forage fish are prone to freezing to death, so sufficient silver carp, bighead carp, crucian carp and other cold-tolerant forage fish should be cultivated for overwintering, to serve as reserve forage fish for the osmanthus fish in winter and spring.

The Living Environment of Mandarin Fish

The mandarin fish is a bottom-dwelling fish that lives in still water and in rivers, lakes and reservoirs with a certain current, especially in shallow lakes with abundant aquatic plants. During the day it generally lies hidden at the bottom, and at night it moves around foraging, has the habit of digging holes and making nests, does not like to live in groups, and its suitable living water temperature is 15-32°C. Below 7°C it is not very active and does not feed much.

Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained a certain understanding of mandarin fish farming techniques. Although mandarin fish farming looks promising with excellent economic benefits, everyone should not blindly follow the trend, after all, starting a business involves risks.