Detailed Guide to Giant Freshwater Prawn Farming: Master Scientific Farming Methods
In summer, more and more people like to go out to cool off, mostly in groups of three or four or five who arrange to sit together, and once they are done they head straight for the late-night snack stalls. This season is when giant freshwater prawns are most popular; whether it is oil-braised shrimp, steamed shrimp, or boiled shrimp, giant freshwater prawns are basically the choice. Although the head is big and the body small, the meat is good and the taste is good, so it is a great choice. Young people love to drink, and oil-braised shrimp has become a standard accompaniment to drinking, so the demand for giant freshwater prawns is growing larger and larger, and this year's market demand has also risen greatly, causing supply to fall short of demand, so everyone can consider farming giant freshwater prawns; this might be a pretty good choice.
Giant Freshwater Prawn Farming Techniques
The farming techniques for giant freshwater prawns vary with the region, and the farming methods also change accordingly. Let us briefly summarize what aspects giant freshwater prawn farming includes:
1. Farming facilities: The pond area should preferably be 4-10 mu, with a depth of 1-1.5 m and a slope ratio of 1:2.5. The pond bottom should be flat, and the bottom soil is best if it is loam; the pond slope soil should be relatively hard, the pond should have good water retention, and the water level should be easy to regulate. The water source should be sufficient and the water quality unpolluted. Following the layout of high-level irrigation and low-level drainage, build the intake and drainage channels well, so that water can be let in and drained out.
2. Preparation before stocking: Thoroughly clear and disinfect the pond. 20-30 days before stocking shrimp fry and shrimp seed, drain the pond water, remove excess silt, repair the pond embankments, and use 75 kg of quicklime per mu, or agents such as bleaching powder or bleaching powder concentrate, to thoroughly clear and disinfect the pond. Apply sufficient base fertilizer: apply 500-600 kg of decomposed livestock and poultry manure per mu to cultivate rotifers and cladoceran and copepod plankton, providing suitable food for the shrimp fry and shrimp seed. Plant aquatic plants well: plant aquatic plants such as hornwort, Malaysian pondweed, and Elodea in the pond, covering 2/3 of the shrimp pond area. At the same time, set up netting, or place bamboo tubes, plastic tubes, and the like.
3. Scientific feeding: According to the nutritional needs of shrimp at the same growth and development stages, do a good job of combining and feeding the feed. Feed according to the shrimp's living habits and feeding characteristics. Feed reasonably according to weather, water quality changes, and the shrimp's activity and feeding conditions.
4. Daily management: Patrol the pond every day, and take countermeasures promptly when abnormalities are found. Regulate water quality, keeping the dissolved oxygen content of the shrimp pond above 5 g/L, pH 7-8.5, and transparency around 40 cm. Change the water once every 15-20 days, changing 1/3 each time. Splash quicklime water once every 20 days, using 10 kg of quicklime per mu each time. Always keep more aquatic plants in the shrimp pond to prevent and control disease. Do a good job of disease prevention and control and removal of harmful enemies.
How to Cultivate Water for Giant Freshwater Prawns
Farming shrimp is farming water; when the water is clear, the shrimp have no disease. Once young shrimp grow a little larger, they move to large ponds. In recent years, the water quality of the farming water source, that is, the river water around the ponds, has been poor, so shrimp farmers have carefully formulated an efficient and safe “green water plan”:
Reasonably adjust shrimp farming density, do not one-sidedly pursue yield, feed scientifically, and strictly control the amount of feed to reduce organic matter polluting the pond water quality; increase the dissolved oxygen content of the water body, especially on rainy days, improve oxygenation efficiency, and weaken the stress response of shrimp caused by climate;
Pretreat the farming water by methods such as filtration, sedimentation, and drug disinfection, and keep the water quality stable during the farming period;
Maintain the transparency of the pond water, plant floating aquatic plants or aquatic vegetables, absorb nitrogen and phosphorus in the water body, and continuously purify the shrimp pond water quality. Once shrimp get sick, there is no medicine to cure them, and the huge investment of shrimp farmers turns to nothing. But when the water is clear, the shrimp are lively, and their strong resistance can help them healthily “endure” until the market season.
“Eating fresh shrimp, food safety is very well guaranteed.” No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used in the shrimp farming process; it relies entirely on cultivating a pond of clear water.
How to Harvest Giant Freshwater Prawns
Because giant freshwater prawns like to grow among weeds, and the bottom of a giant freshwater prawn pond cannot possibly be flat, and giant freshwater prawns also have the habit of burrowing holes, the following harvesting methods are adopted according to the biological characteristics of giant freshwater prawns.
1. Ground cage net harvesting: Make the net for harvesting giant freshwater prawns into a ground cage. Each ground cage is about 20-30 m long, with 10-20 square compartments, and each compartment has barbs on both sides at intervals; a covering net is woven above the cage, and the two ends of the ground cage are respectively circled into round shapes. Ground cage nets with knots are better. Every morning or afternoon, place the ground cage at the edge of the shrimp pond, and put in fish, chicken intestines, and other items with a strong fishy smell as bait.
In the evening, when the shrimp come out to seek food, they smell the strange odor, follow the smell, and bump into the cage. There is netting above the cage blocking them, so they cannot climb up, and then they look everywhere for an entrance and drill into the cage. The shrimp that enter the cage slide toward the depths of the cage and become shrimp in the cage. This harvesting method is suitable for harvesting wild giant freshwater prawns and for harvesting giant freshwater prawns in relatively deep pond water.
2. Hand dip net harvesting: Tie the upper part of the shrimp net into a square shape, and leave a barbed conical funnel below; along the edge zones of the shrimp pond or places with dense water weeds, continuously drive with a pole, and the shrimp enter the square dip net; lift the net, and the shrimp are caught. This harvesting method is suitable for places where shrimp are dense.
3. Dry pond capture: Pump dry the water in the pond, and the shrimp appear at the bottom of the pond; use manual hand-picking to catch them freely.
Giant Freshwater Prawn Farming Costs
One mu of land only needs 120-150 jin of shrimp fry stocked, at a cost of about 5,000 yuan. Three mu is about 15,000 yuan. Giant freshwater prawn farming requires one stocking and brings benefits for many years; after stocking, there is no need to stock again for five to six years, and degeneration is not easy; the young shrimp bred can continue to be used as seed for egg-laying and reproduction.
Giant freshwater prawns grow fast and have high yield. About 3 months after stocking shrimp seed and laying eggs, they can be marketed. They have a very wide range of adaptation and can be farmed in all waters of our country; ponds, rice fields, lakes, river branches, and swamps can all be used for farming. Normal sales by farmers differ from wild harvesting, being in late autumn and early winter each year, so off-season prices can be expected to be higher.
Using the method of holding and raising for off-season sales, the price of giant freshwater prawns in autumn and winter each year is between 30-50 yuan/kg, so the net profit per mu is between 12,000-25,000 yuan.
After reading all this, do you think the prospects for farming giant freshwater prawns are quite promising? The investment is not large but the returns are large, and only the first year is the hardest; in the following years you can sit back and watch the profits. For me, farming shrimp is not very realistic; I can only rely on everyone else to farm shrimp while I satisfy my craving.