Detailed Explanation of Tilapia Intensive Culture Experience and Farming Methods

Ordinary people often say that girls should be raised with abundance, and boys should be raised with hardship. In the aquaculture industry, it is generally believed that whiteleg shrimp are relatively delicate, fetch a high market price, and must be treated with an intensive-culture approach, while tilapia are inherently lowly, positioned in the market as a low-end fish, requiring no intensive culture and only needing to be raised with a hardship approach. But Lu Hongxin, a tilapia farmer in Nanning, Guangxi, adopted the method of raising whiteleg shrimp to intensively culture tilapia. His 30-mu fish ponds produce over 200,000 jin of tilapia annually, with an average individual weight of 1.8 jin, profit maintained at 2 yuan/jin, and annual profit income reaching 400,000 yuan.

Choose large-company brand large-size fry for farming, ensuring fry quality. The first crop is stocked in March at the start of spring, with a stocking size of 3 cun~4 cun per fish, and fry price of 0.5 yuan~0.55 yuan per fish. To reduce fish disease and slow growth rate, Lu Hongxin does not stock at too high a density, at 2,000 fish/mu, and farms until late July to early August when the pond is drained and fish are caught, at which time the average individual weight is 1.8 jin per fish. After catching the fish in August, the second crop begins stocking, with the same stocking size of 3 cun~4 cun per fish; at this time the fry price is slightly lower than the first crop, generally 0.4 yuan per fish. If the fry farm cannot supply large-size fry, then purchase about 10-chao fry in advance in May~June and raise them to 3 cun~4 cun before putting them into the large pond for farming. Feeding with probiotics and allicin mixed into feed throughout the entire process. To prevent hepatobiliary disease or streptococcosis, Lu Hongxin uses probiotics and ferment bacteria mixed into feed to feed the fish throughout the entire farming process, and uses allicin to regulate the tilapia's stomach and intestines. Probiotic dosage: mix 2 jin of EM bacteria into 100 jin, or add 10% ferment bacteria to 100 jin of feed, feeding probiotics for 1 day every 3 days (2 meals per day, one in the morning and one in the evening). Allicin dosage: use according to the formula dosage described in the instructions for promoting growth and regulating the stomach and intestines: add 200 grams of allicin to 1 ton of feed and mix into the feed, once every half month, with each course lasting 3 days~5 days of feeding. When water temperature is too high and streptococcosis is prevalent, check the tilapia intestinal feces for a “strip-shaped” phenomenon, indicating indigestion in the tilapia; at this time allicin should be used according to the treatment formula dosage, adding 350 grams~400 grams of allicin to 1 ton of feed, continuously feeding for 3 days~5 days (one course). Run the aerator all day every day in the farming pond. Lu Hongxin says it is very important to maintain sufficient oxygen in the pond and not let the tilapia gasp at the surface, so the aerator is run every day throughout the entire farming process. This practice of his often causes puzzlement among nearby farmers, who tell Lu Hongxin that tilapia are very easy to raise and do not need such good conditions created for them. Whenever he hears these words, Lu Hongxin disagrees, and also warns his peers that aeration cannot be omitted. He says that if dissolved oxygen in the water is insufficient, harmful substances in the water accumulate, or after rainfall the low-temperature rainwater accelerates and sinks to the pond bottom, toxic substances rise up from the bottom, and these toxic and harmful substances cannot be dealt with in time, the tilapia body becomes poisoned, stops eating, physical condition declines, and finally disease occurs or even death. Configure one 3-kilowatt aerator for every 6 mu of pond, running on schedule every day from 4:00~8:00 in the morning and 1:30~4:00 in the afternoon. If encountering abnormal weather, such as too high temperature, thunderstorms with low air pressure, or muggy weather, then also increase the running time during the 12:00 midnight period. Regularly splash quicklime. Lu Hongxin says he rarely uses antibiotics and disinfectants in tilapia farming, but he regularly applies quicklime; first, quicklime sterilizes and purifies water quality, and second, it provides a “carbon” source for tilapia growth. Lu Hongxin suggests that especially for dead-water ponds with poor water-exchange conditions or no ability to exchange water, quicklime should preferably be used regularly. Dissolve 30 jin of quicklime per mu and splash it over the entire pond, splashing quicklime once a month. Regularly dissect and weigh tilapia. Starting from stocking, every 10 days, Lu Hongxin regularly samples, dissects, inspects, and weighs. This measure of his also often draws ridicule from nearby farming peers; work they consider troublesome, he nevertheless conscientiously carries out as always. Lu Hongxin explains that by dissecting tilapia and examining the liver, gallbladder, intestines, and other organs of the tilapia, one can judge whether the digestive system function of the tilapia is normal. If the tilapia intestinal feces show a “strip-shaped” phenomenon, then increase the allicin feeding amount. By weighing the tilapia body, understand the growth rate of the fish and reasonably determine the feeding amount. After long-term exploration, he arrived at feeding experience: for tilapia below 3 liang, feed at a ratio of 3%~5% (3 jin~5 jin of feed per 100 jin of fish); for tilapia from 3 liang~6 liang, reduce the feeding amount to 3%; for tilapia above 6 liang, the feeding amount is 2%~2.5%. Feed reasonably and control feeding to 90% full, so as not to waste cost and pollute water quality due to overfeeding, while also ensuring the nutrition needed for normal growth of tilapia. According to his statistics, the feed conversion ratio for farming tilapia of 1.8 jin individual weight is 1.45, and the feed conversion ratio for farming tilapia of 1.5 jin~1.6 jin individual weight is 1.38. Streptococcosis losses are almost zero. Lu Hongxin's pond has a unique advantage: not only is water exchange and drainage convenient, but hot spring water can also be added at any time. Hot spring water is warm in winter and cool in summer; in winter there is no need to cover a greenhouse and the tilapia will not freeze to death, and in summer the water temperature generally does not exceed 31°C, so the probability of disease in the fish pond is very low. This year in June~July was the high-incidence period for tilapia streptococcosis in the Nanning area; 80% of ponds in Long'an County with intensive culture, cage culture, or duck-pig mixed culture developed the disease, and farmers suffered heavy losses. But under Lu Hongxin's meticulous care, the tilapia mortality rate was almost negligible; generally deaths occurred only once every few days, with fingerlings dying at most 15~16 fish at a time, and large fish dying 2~3 fish at a time. Staggered market timing, focusing on domestic sales, average price maintained at 6 yuan/jin throughout the year. In South China, tilapia stocked in spring generally have a market peak from September~October, and tilapia stocked in autumn generally have a market peak from April~May; both time periods have a relatively sluggish price period. To avoid the two fish-selling peak periods, Lu Hongxin uses the advantage of hot spring water farming, stocking in March and August each year, and selling fish in August and March of the following year. Due to regional advantages, tilapia farmed in Nanning rarely enter factories and are mainly used for domestic sales. Lu Hongxin's farmed tilapia use Yunnan region as the main market, accounting for 70%, Nanning city accounts for 20%, and Long'an County local consumption accounts for 10%. Among Lu Hongxin's fish-farming costs, fry are 800 yuan~1,100 yuan and feed is 5,000 yuan~5,200 yuan, which are the main costs; other costs such as medicines are about 600 yuan per mu, and the cost per jin of fish is generally controlled at 3.9 yuan~4 yuan/jin. He says that before August the fish price is better; for 1.8 jin size, the Yunnan fish purchase price is 6.5 yuan/jin, and the Nanning area fish purchase price is 6.3 yuan/jin. After August, as the tilapia market peak arrives, increased pond output pulls the fish price down. For example, recently in some areas of South China the price of 1 jin size fish (factory-bound) has fallen to 4.7 yuan~4.8 yuan. But at this time Lu Hongxin's first batch of fish has already been fully sold, and the second batch of fish has only recently been put into the pond, and cannot be harvested until March of next year when the supply of commercial fish is at its lowest. The annual average price is guaranteed at 6 yuan or above/jin, and profit is guaranteed at 2 yuan or above/jin. “Herding fish” improves transport survival rate. Lu Hongxin introduces that every time he sells fish he must first “herd the fish”; this action, which looks both troublesome and loss-making, is often mocked by other peers, but he conscientiously does it well every time. “Herding fish” means starting to stop feeding two days before selling fish, pulling an empty net 2~3 times the night before selling fish, with several people going down into the pond to “herd the fish”, making the fish swim continuously. The purpose is to make the tilapia empty their feces, so that during transport they do not pollute the water quality and the transport survival rate is improved. Other farmers, before selling fish, not only do not “herd the fish”, but instead increase the feeding amount, hoping to gain more weight and make more money. But the transport survival rate declines, and the buyer loses too much and next time will not dare to trade with such a person. Lu Hongxin's farmed tilapia are transported to Yunnan, and he never needs to administer any anti-stress drugs; midway only one water change is needed, and the transport survival rate is very high, generally reaching 95%, sometimes reaching 100%. The tilapia he sells are often priced higher than others, and are most favored by buyers.