How to Farm Bighead Carp? A Few Farming Experience Tips to Share

Bighead carp is quite popular among consumers in the market, especially the fish head of bighead carp used for hot pot or stewed soup, which is a favorite of many people. Therefore, the market demand for bighead carp is beyond doubt, so if farmers want to achieve success in bighead carp farming, successful experience is indispensable.

A Few Experience Tips for Farming Bighead Carp

1. Preparatory work before stocking: The fry pond is required to be relatively large in area, generally 4-8 mu, and the water should be relatively deep, generally 1.5-2 m. Before stocking, organic fertilizer should be applied for cultivation. For bighead carp, the base fertilizer should be applied in an appropriate amount, and the pond should be stocked while controlling the peak period of wheel worms.

2. Summer fry stocking: The stocking time is generally from May to June. The stocking methods include monoculture and polyculture. Polyculture is generally adopted, because at this stage the habits of fish gradually show differences, and their requirements for the external environment also differ. By matching and polyculturing according to the different habits of various fish and their adaptability to water quality, not only is a suitable growth environment given to each kind of fish, but the utilization rate of the water body and the more economical use of feed are also fully brought into play. Fry ponds generally use polyculture of 2-3 species; in this experiment, a small number of silver carp and common carp were polycultured.

3. Feeding management: At this time, bighead carp still mainly feeds on plankton. The pond water is required to be fertile, with a large amount of plankton. In addition to applying base fertilizer before stocking in the pond, after summer fry stocking, green manure and decomposed manure fertilizer should also be applied, combined with regular injection of fresh water to keep the water brownish green. During feeding, artificial feeding should follow the “four fixed” principles, namely fixed time, fixed location, fixed quality, and fixed quantity, so as to improve the utilization rate of bait and reduce the feed conversion ratio. At this time, the amount of bait fed should be somewhat less.

4. Daily management: Patrol the pond once every morning to observe the water color and the movement of the fish. Often remove weeds at the pond edge and decaying debris in the water, clean the feeding platform, and disinfect the feeding platform and food. This protects pond hygiene. Net-pulling inspection is not only beneficial to fertilizing the water, but also convenient for checking fish growth, fish diseases, and other conditions, thereby reasonably establishing the feeding amount and fish disease prevention and control methods, and doing a good job in preventing escape, preventing theft, and preventing and controlling fish diseases and natural enemies.

5. Pond merging and overwintering: In late autumn and early winter, when the water temperature drops below 10 degrees, the fish no longer feed. At this time, the fish must be taken out and concentrated for overwintering in a relatively deep fish pond. Note that feeding should be stopped one week before pond merging, and the net should be pulled to take the fish out of the pond on a sunny day. During pond merging, net pulling and handling must be careful and meticulous to avoid injuring the fish body and the occurrence of water mold disease during the overwintering period. The overwintering pond should have a water depth of more than 2 m, face the sun and be sheltered from the wind, and have little sludge. After pond merging, oxygen deprivation should be prevented when it freezes, and harm from water birds must be strictly prevented.

The Appearance of Bighead Carp  

Bighead carp is also called fathead fish, bighead fish, and black carp, and its appearance resembles that of silver carp. The body is somewhat flat, and the head is large and wide, with the head length about 1/3 of the body length. The mouth is also wide and slightly upturned. The eyes are low in position. The gill openings are relatively large, and the gill cover membrane is well developed. The scales are fine and dense. The back is blue-black, the sides of the body are dark brown with black or yellow mottled patches, the abdomen is grayish white, and the fins are light gray. There is a horny abdominal keel from the base of the pelvic fin to the anus. The pectoral fin is relatively long, and its rear edge extends beyond the pelvic fin.

The head of the bighead carp is large, accounting for one third of the body length. The sides of the body are blackish and have mottled patches, and the eyes are relatively low in position. The fish brain contains a kind of bighead carp oil needed by the human body, and fish oil is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are an essential nutrient for the human body and can help maintain, improve, and enhance brain function. The flesh below the fish gills is transparent and gelatinous, with sufficient moisture, and is rich in collagen, which can fight human aging and repair body cell tissues.

The Nutritional Value of Bighead Carp  

Bighead carp tastes sweet and is warm in nature, and can warm the stomach, tonify deficiency, resolve phlegm, and calm asthma. It is suitable for symptoms such as deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach, excessive phlegm, and cough. People with weak constitution had better eat more of the bighead carp fish head, as its warming tonic effect is very good, and it can also help treat tinnitus and dizziness. People with excessive phlegm and dizziness can cook bighead carp together with tofu.  

Bighead carp has a protective effect on the cardiovascular system. It is rich in phospholipids and pituitrin, which improves memory, and especially has a very high content in the brain marrow. Regular consumption can warm the stomach, remove dizziness, benefit intelligence, aid memory, delay aging, and moisturize the skin.

Bighead Carp Farming Prospects  

Bighead carp is popular in the market, and the key is that it is built on a foundation of consumption habits. Bighead carp fish head is used to make delicious fish soup or for hot pot, two cooking methods favored by people in Guangdong. It is likewise very popular in domestic and international markets, and its price is the highest among the “four major Chinese carps.” Because the market demands large-sized bighead carp, a farming model mainly based on bighead carp is now popular.  

Here is an example: for a fish pond of 7 mu to 8 mu, bighead carp is farmed for two cycles a year. From August to September, 70 bighead carp of 0.75 kg each are stocked per mu of pond, and they are raised until March to April of the following year for harvest, because bighead carp is relatively scarce at this time and the purchase price is higher. At the same time, 60 grass carp of 1 jin each are put in per mu, 700 mud carp of 1 liang each, 130 crucian carp of 3 liang each, 10 common carp of 0.2 liang each per mu, 250 walking catfish of 1 liang each per mu, and 10 snakehead of 1 liang each per mu.  

Using duck manure as the fertilizer source can cultivate large amounts of plankton in the pond and provide enough feed for the bighead carp to eat. After the duck manure to be applied is fermented with a certain amount of quicklime, 15 kg to 20 kg is put into each nylon bag, and one bag is hung in each mu of pond. The specific amount hung should be determined according to the weather and water quality. Other fish are appropriately fed a certain amount of wheat and matched with a certain amount of green grass. After the bighead carp are all harvested in March and April, 80 bighead carp of 0.75 kg each are stocked, raised until August and September for harvest, while other miscellaneous fish are harvested before the Spring Festival. 

Once you have mastered the experience of farming bighead carp, you may still encounter some other problems in the actual farming process. In farming, you must be flexible and adaptable, and also constantly summarize. Problems that were not recorded before should be recorded in time, and solutions should be found, so that the farming business can continue to move forward.