Catfish farming tips to increase production: master these for higher yields

Catfish is a tropical fish, large in size, with plenty of meat and few bones, and its taste resembles that of river eel, hence the name “eight-whisker catfish eel.” It also has excellent traits such as fast growth, a wide feeding range, and few diseases, making it a superior freshwater fish species. However, its drawback is poor cold tolerance: when the water temperature drops below 7°C, it easily freezes to death, so its growing period is very short, only 5 to 6 months a year. Because it cannot overwinter in natural waters (except in Guangdong and Guangxi), fresh fish come onto the market in a highly concentrated way during the peak fishing season, causing fish stocks to pile up, prices to be low, and profits to be poor. In addition, catfish cannibalize each other severely during the farming process, greatly affecting the increase of stocking density and yield. But if you use some production tricks and apply scientific methods to farm catfish, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort. 

1. Two-stage stocking of fry. Newly transported fry have weak resistance and uneven sizes; if they are put directly into a large pond for rearing, the fry have a large range of activity and consume a lot of energy, and the feed put in is hard for them to eat in time, causing waste and also polluting the water quality. But if two-stage stocking is carried out, that is, first concentrating them in a small pond for intensive rearing and then putting them into a large pond, it is not only easier to manage, but also helps the fry adapt better to the new environment and easily obtain sufficient food in the small pond, promoting rapid growth. When the fry raised in the small pond reach about 10 to 15 cm, the larger fingerlings can be selected from the pond and put into the large pond for rearing, while the smaller fingerlings remain in the small pond for intensive rearing, so that the fingerlings grow evenly and are uniform in size. This avoids the phenomenon of big fish eating small fish during the farming process, thereby effectively increasing the survival rate of the fry and the yield per unit area. 

2. Feed reasonably. Catfish is an omnivorous fish with a greedy appetite, so the feeding amount must be correctly controlled, feeding as much as there are fish in the pond, to prevent blind feeding. At the same time, feeding should be carried out at multiple points, with the bait spread evenly, small amounts and many meals, feeding enough to satisfy them, to prevent uneven hunger and fullness that leads to polarization. At the same time, in the early stage of fry rearing, animal feed should be the main type for intensive rearing; as the fish grow, some plant-based feed should gradually be introduced, so that animal and plant feed are combined. The daily feeding amount should be controlled at about 5 to 8% of the total body weight of the fish, and the feeding amount must be adjusted once every 1 week or half a month, so that the feeding amount becomes more reasonable. 

3. Carry out rotational catching and separate rearing. Because catfish are ferocious and greedy, the big fish often grab the food first when feeding, while the small fish cannot get food, causing the size gap among the fish to become larger and larger. For this reason, before catching catfish, rotational catching and separate rearing should be carried out once, with large and small fish raised in separate ponds, so that growth reaches a balance. This is one of the important measures for increasing yield. 

4. Advocate overwintering of catfish. When fishing in autumn, in addition to selling the large fish, some adult fish can be moved into deep-water ponds to overwinter (with a nylon greenhouse built over the pond), to be sold as early-spring fish; this can both solve the difficulty of selling catfish in the peak season and extend the fresh fish supply time, and the fish price can be doubled, truly achieving two gains at once.