A Detailed Guide to Soilless Loach Farming and Rice Paddy Loach Farming Techniques

The loach is a fairly common fish species in our daily lives, and it is currently distributed quite widely across our country. The loach's nutritional value and eating quality are both very good, and it is very popular among people. Nowadays many people want to increase their income by farming it, but before farming it, they need to have a comprehensive understanding of its various farming techniques.

Soilless Loach Farming Techniques

1. Feed selection: The loach is an omnivorous fish; small aquatic animals and plants, microorganisms and organic debris in the water are all foods it likes to eat. In artificial farming, you can directly feed aquatic insects, yellow mealworms, earthworms, maggots, river mussels, spiral shells, fish meal, trash fish meat and livestock and poultry offal, etc., or you can feed artificial compound feed.

2. Feed feeding: Loach feeding should adhere to the four-fixed principle; on rainy and muggy days, appropriately reduce the feeding amount. Every day you should persist in patrolling the field once a week, and any problems found should be dealt with promptly; for example, holes in the field ridge, water leakage, dead fish, etc. should all be handled quickly, and the pond water should be kept a tender green color. Every 15 days, disinfect once with disinfectant solutions such as quicklime or bleaching powder. Fertilization of lotus root fields should be based mainly on ample base fertilizer, with little chemical fertilizer used; pesticides should be products with high efficiency and low toxicity, and harmless to loaches. Change the water regularly; each water change of 20-30% is sufficient.

3. Water quality regulation: The water quality should be "fertile, lively, tender and refreshing", with a yellow-green water color being best, and a transparency of 20-30 cm being suitable. When the transparency is greater than 30 cm, apply 20 kg of organic fertilizer per mu each time to increase natural food organisms for loaches such as copepods and cladocerans in the pond. When the transparency is less than 20 cm, stop or reduce topdressing. In high-temperature seasons, often inject new water, replace part of the old water, and regularly turn on the aerator.

Rice Paddy Loach Farming Techniques

1. Fertilization. During the farming process, in order to ensure a continuous supply of plankton, organic fertilizer must be applied as topdressing in a timely, small and uniform manner. Apply fertilizer once every 10-15 days, using 150 kg per mu each time. In addition, according to the specific water color conditions, apply about 1.5 kg of urea or 2.5 kg of ammonium bicarbonate per mu each time to keep the water body yellow-green.

2. Feeding. Because the density of loaches in the field is relatively high, artificial feed should be fed, such as soybean cake, silkworm pupa powder, fly maggots, earthworms, snails, mussels, slaughterhouse offal, rice bran, soybean dregs, rapeseed cake, wheat bran, etc., to supplement the insufficiency of natural food. July-August is the peak season for loach growth, requiring a ratio of 15% silkworm pupa powder, 10% meat and bone meal, and 25% soybean cake, with feeding twice a day and a feeding rate of 10%. In September-October, plant-based feed such as wheat bran and rice bran is mainly used, generally feeding once each in the morning and afternoon, with the feeding amount being 2%-4% of the loach's total weight. In early spring and late autumn, about 2%. The specifics should be flexibly controlled according to the loach's feeding situation; generally, after each feeding, it is best if the feed is basically finished within 1-2 hours.

3. Water level control. Water level control is extremely important. The actual water level above the field surface is generally controlled at above 5 cm. Add new water at appropriate times, generally adding water once every half month, and in the high-temperature summer season the water level should be appropriately deepened.

Loach Stocking Patterns

1. Stocking preparation: 20 days before stocking the loach fry, clean up, renovate and disinfect the pond. Use wire mesh at the water inlet and outlet to prevent escape. At the drainage outlet, dig a fish pit covering about 1/3 to 1/5 of the entire pond area and 30-50 cm deep, and spread a layer of clay rich in humus on the pond bottom. 7 days before stocking, use quicklime to clear the pond; for each mu of pond with a water depth of 10 cm, use 75 kg of quicklime slaked into slurry and splash it over the whole pond. 5 days after pond clearing, inject water to 25 cm, and apply 150-250 kg of organic fertilizer per mu to fertilize the water quality.

2. Fry and fingerling stocking: For loach fry and fingerlings, choose artificially bred fry or wild fry, but all must be uniform in size, free of disease and injury, and agile in movement, and stocked all at once. The stocking time is generally in April each year, when the average water temperature is above 15 degrees C; stock 1100 kg per mu of fry and fingerlings with a size of 80 fish/kg, and it is best to choose a sunny afternoon for this. Before stocking, soak and disinfect the fry and fingerlings in a bleaching powder solution at a concentration of 8-10 mg/L, with a soaking and disinfection time of 20-30 minutes.

Common Loach Diseases and Their Prevention and Treatment

1. Saprolegniasis: The pathogen invades through wounds and then causes disease, so care must be taken during harvesting and transport of loaches, and try not to injure the loach body.

Prevention and treatment: Loach fry, fingerlings and eggs can be soaked and washed in a potassium permanganate solution at a concentration of 4 mg/kg for 10-15 minutes; for adult loaches and brood loaches that are sick, medical iodine tincture or 1% concentration potassium permanganate can be used to apply to the wounds, with a certain effect.

2. Red fin disease: It is mainly caused by deterioration of pond water, improper nutrition and injury to the fish body.

Prevention and treatment: Use 1 mg/kg of bleaching powder or 0.3 mg/kg of strong chlorine essence to splash over the whole field, repeat once after 24 hours, and afterward splash once every half month for prevention.

The techniques of soilless loach farming are actually very simple; the main thing is to do a good job of regulating water quality. When farming in rice paddies, you need to do the fertilization work in advance, and then control the water level well. Feeding is also very important; generally feed with foods such as earthworms and insects, and the number of feedings also needs to be grasped well.