Detailed Explanation of the Eight Key Precautions for Rice Field Eel Farming

Farming rice field eels is also one of the special types of aquaculture. When raised properly, the economic returns are higher than those from fish farming. Therefore, in rural aquaculture, the number of households farming rice field eels has been continuously expanding in recent years, but among the farmers raising rice field eels, quite a few have also failed. The reasons for this are many-sided. However, on technical issues, the following eight categories mainly exist.

1. Indiscriminate purchase of fry and fingerlings. The so-called “artificially bred” fry and fingerlings or other so-called “high-quality” fry and fingerlings purchased by many farmers from other places are actually wild-collected fry and fingerlings, and because these fry and fingerlings have undergone temporary holding and unscientific operations such as multi-stage storage and transportation, the mortality rate in farming is 90% to 100%. Therefore, when purchasing fry and fingerlings, one must carefully inspect and identify them. Generally, for artificial farming of rice field eels, one should select high-quality fry and fingerlings locally. This is both economical and guarantees quality.

2. Not being selective about varieties. From their appearance, rice field eels include types such as deep yellow with large spots, earthy red with large spots, light yellow with fine spots, and blue-gray with fine spots. Only by choosing the first two types can one achieve relatively fast growth speed, and only then can artificial farming achieve ideal economic benefits.

3. Mixed culture of large and small eels. When large and small eels are mixed in the same pond, the small eels do not dare to compete for food, become weak in constitution, and may even die. When bait is insufficient, large eels swallow small eels. Therefore, when large and small eels are mixed, although the large eels grow fast, the total pond yield is low.

4. Pond water too deep. Because rice field eels have no swim bladder, they cannot freely float and stay in different water layers to expose themselves to the surface to breathe air. If the pond water is too deep, rice field eels need to frequently swim to the surface to breathe, consuming a large amount of physical energy and affecting normal life and growth. For pond culture of rice field eels, according to the size of the eel body, the water depth should be 5 to 20 cm, while for cage culture of eels, the aquatic plants should fill the entire cage so as to provide good perching and breathing conditions for the rice field eels.

5. Applying manure to eel ponds. The water body of an eel pond is small, and applying manure very easily spoils the water quality and induces disease. Such “improving water quality” is not worth the loss.

6. Neglecting to cultivate aquatic plants. Aquatic plants can help rice field eels prevent heatstroke and lower temperature, and purify water quality. An eel pond without aquatic plants cannot create a good ecological environment, and farming rice field eels is also difficult to succeed in, or difficult to achieve high yield and high efficiency.

7. Feeding a “vegetarian” diet. Some farmers feed rice field eels plant-based vegetarian food such as wheat bran, rapeseed cake, soybean dregs, rice, and green vegetables. When severely hungry and lacking bait, rice field eels will also swallow a small amount, but nutritionally this cannot meet the needs of the rice field eels' life activities, let alone growth and weight gain, and over time it causes the rice field eels to gradually become emaciated and to fall ill and die. Rice field eels are bottom-dwelling, ferocious carnivorous fish, and should be fed animal feed or complete compound feed.

8. Frequently changing feed. Farmers often change the type of bait for feeding because bait supply is not guaranteed. Rice field eel feed should have a certain stability. Suddenly changing the type of feed makes it difficult for rice field eels to adapt and they refuse to eat, which affects normal production and growth.