Sharing Experience in Micro-Cage Culture of Yellow Catfish

Raising yellow catfish in small cages set up in ponds used for farming other aquatic products requires little investment, produces quick results, and is easy to operate. Cage setup. The cage is sewn from polyethylene netting, 2 m long, 2 m wide, and 1.2 m high, with a mesh size of 1 cm. The cage uses a closed stretcher float-fixed type, with a 9-mesh net fabric as a liner at the bottom, and the liner edge height is 20 cm to reduce feed loss; the upper part of the cage rises about 30 cm above the water surface. A square plastic basket made of 18-mesh polyethylene window screen, 10 cm high and 30 cm on each side, is used as a feeding platform, placed in the middle of the cage body, with 1 per cage. The cages are set up at the water inlet of the fish pond, and 1-3 cages can be placed per mu of fish pond. The cages can also be set up in spacious waters with fresh water quality, sufficient dissolved oxygen, shelter from wind and sun, and no pollution, arranged in a straight line, with a cage spacing of 4 m and a row spacing of about 10 m. Water hyacinth or alligator weed is transplanted inside the cage to cover about 2/3 of the cage area.

Fingerling stocking. The cages are put into the water 1-2 weeks before fingerling stocking. The fingerlings are required to be disease-free and injury-free, robust in constitution, and uniform in size. Stock 100-150 large-size fingerlings weighing about 20 g each per square meter.

Feeding management.

① Feeding: Commonly used feeds include small trash fish, snail and clam meat, earthworms, silkworm pupae, livestock and poultry viscera, and animal blood, etc. Feed according to the principles of fixed time, fixed location, fixed quality, and fixed quantity to ensure that the yellow catfish eat their fill and eat well and grow quickly.

② Water management: Keep the water quality fresh and the dissolved oxygen sufficient. Observe the fish activity every day, check whether the cage is damaged, remove sick fish and dead fish from the cage, and keep the water body inside the cage clean. Clean the cage once a week to ensure normal exchange of water inside and outside the cage, and adjust the height of the cage in time when the water level changes.

Disease prevention and control. Before the cage is put into the water, soak it in bleaching powder solution for 30 minutes; before the fingerlings are put into the cage, soak and wash the fish bodies with salt solution to kill pathogens and parasites on the body surface; every 10-15 days, splash limewater over the whole cage for disinfection once; regularly hang bags with a mixture of copper sulfate and ferrous sulfate; about every 20 days, make medicated bait with antibiotics and feed continuously for 2-3 days. Through the above measures, fish diseases can be prevented during the farming cycle.