How to Raise Soft-Shelled Turtles in a Fish Pond? A Detailed Guide to Farming Methods and Techniques

With the continuous development and growth of China's aquaculture industry, soft-shelled turtle farming is also a farming project that is currently developing well on the market. With the continuous improvement of people's living standards, people are becoming more and more particular about what they eat.

Basic Conditions for Farming Soft-Shelled Turtles  

1. The pond area is generally 5 to 10 mu, with a water depth of 1.5 to 2.0 m. Around the pond, 1 m × 0.5 m cement precast slabs are used as an escape-proof wall, with the precast slabs buried 40 cm below ground. A sufficient water source is required, and the water quality must be fresh and pollution-free. A 5-mu pond is equipped with 1 3-kilowatt impeller-type aerator, and a 10-mu pond is equipped with 2.  

2. Feed with special compound feed for soft-shelled turtles, and use fresh live fish as supplementary feed. The feeding platforms are made of wooden boards, each about 2 m × 1 m, with one set every 2 to 3 mu. Red tiles can also be placed on the north slope of the pond close to the water surface as simple feeding platforms for the turtles.  

3. Juvenile turtle cultivation is mainly self-breeding and self-raising, with any shortfall purchased from outside. Artificially hatched hatchlings are put into greenhouses for cultivation, without heating in winter. In early June of the following year, after they grow to 50 to 80 g, they are transferred to outdoor ponds for final stocking and grow-out, or they are cultivated in ponds into juvenile turtles weighing 150 to 250 g each, and then divided into separate ponds for adult turtle farming.  

Main Technical Measures for Farming Soft-Shelled Turtles  

1. Pond cleaning and preparation: 10 to 15 days before releasing the seedlings, drain the pond water, remove excess sludge, and thoroughly disinfect with 150 kg of quicklime per mu or splash EM bacterial liquid over the whole pond.  

2. Stocking of juvenile turtles: select juvenile turtles that are robust, uniform in size, and free of disease and injury. Before stocking, soak the juvenile turtles in a potassium permanganate aqueous solution at a concentration of 15 to 20 mg/L for 10 to 15 minutes. Generally, 80 to 120 juvenile turtles are stocked per mu. At the same time, stock 500 to 700 grass carp fingerlings weighing 40 to 80 g each, 200 to 250 silver carp fingerlings weighing 50 to 100 g each, and 30 to 50 bighead carp weighing 100 to 500 g each. To ensure the normal feeding of the turtles, carp are generally not polycultured in the pond.  

3. Feeding: adopt the principle of mainly using special compound feed for soft-shelled turtles, supplemented by fresh live fish. Compound feed accounts for 75%, and fresh live fish accounts for 25%. The fresh live fish are minced with a meat grinder and mixed with the compound feed into a dough for feeding. Feeding is done on feeding platforms above the water. For adult turtle farming, feed once a day at 5 p.m. Feed according to the "four fixed" principles of fixed time, fixed quantity, fixed quality, and fixed location. The feeding amount should be suitable for consumption within two hours. The farmed grass carp are fed grass carp compound feed according to the requirements of pond fish farming.  

4. Water quality regulation and disease prevention and control: In the process of imitating the ecological farming of soft-shelled turtles, doing a good job in water quality regulation is an important measure to improve turtle quality and avoid disease.  

① Add water regularly. Add water once every 10 days, 10 to 15 cm each time, and change water at any time according to the pond water quality conditions. The water exchange volume generally does not exceed one third, maintaining fresh and stable water quality;  

② Splash quicklime once every 20 days, 15 to 20 kg per mu each time, or use 2 kg of EM bacterial liquid diluted for use;  

③ On sunny days at noon, turn on the aerator for 1 to 2 hours to stir the water and aerate;  

④ Splash microbial ecological preparations such as photosynthetic bacteria, Bacillus, and EM bacterial liquid once a month to regulate water quality;  

⑤ Control the feeding amount to reduce feed pollution. Control the soft-shelled turtle feed so it is eaten within 2 hours, feed the polycultured grass carp to 80% fullness, and regularly add vitamin C and vitamin E to the feed to enhance the disease resistance of the turtles; sixth, every morning use a bristle brush to clean the feeding platforms and then expose them to the sun for disinfection, and disinfect with potassium permanganate water once a week.  

5. Pond patrol: patrol the pond twice a day in the morning and evening, check the escape-proof facilities, observe water quality changes and the feeding situation of the soft-shelled turtles, and deal with problems promptly. Pay even more attention on rainy days, because rain loosens the soil, and the escape-proof wall is prone to collapse, causing the soft-shelled turtles to escape.  

How to Select Soft-Shelled Turtles  

1. Grasp: Grasp the soft-shelled turtle by the armpit of its hind leg. If it moves quickly, kicks its four legs wildly, and is fierce and strong, it is a high-quality soft-shelled turtle; if it moves inflexibly, its four legs move only slightly or not at all, it is an inferior soft-shelled turtle.  

2. Look: Mainly look at each part of the soft-shelled turtle. Those with a complete appearance, no injury or disease, thick muscles, a glossy plastron, blurred dorsal scutes and ribs, a thick and upturned skirt, thick and strong four legs, and agile movement are high-quality soft-shelled turtles; otherwise, they are inferior soft-shelled turtles.  

3. Check: Mainly check whether there are hooks or needles in the neck of the soft-shelled turtle. Soft-shelled turtles with hooks or needles cannot be kept for long periods or transported over long distances. Checking method: use a hard bamboo chopstick to stimulate the head of the soft-shelled turtle, let it bite, then pull the chopstick with one hand to stretch its neck, and feel carefully along the neck with the other hand.  

4. Test: Turn the soft-shelled turtle upside down and place it flat on the ground. If it can quickly turn back over, escape rapidly, and move agilely, it is a high-quality soft-shelled turtle; if it turns over slowly and moves sluggishly, it is an inferior soft-shelled turtle.

What Soft-Shelled Turtles Eat  

Soft-shelled turtles are omnivorous animals that are mainly carnivorous. Although their feeding habits are omnivorous, under intensive artificial farming conditions, to achieve the best results in growth, survival rate, and commercial quality of soft-shelled turtles, high-quality compound feed must be selected, and a certain proportion of fresh, pollution-free live bait (such as fish, snails, liver, eggs, vegetables) must be added over the long term, ground into a slurry and mixed with compound feed for feeding, in order to regulate and improve the internal organ function of the soft-shelled turtles.  

At present, soft-shelled turtle prices are falling, and some farmers use low-grade compound feed to reduce costs. This practice is not worth the loss. In some places, the high incidence of "white plastron" disease in soft-shelled turtles is related to long-term minimal or no addition of fresh feed. Of course, this is also related to poor water quality regulation and insufficient preventive measures.

Soft-Shelled Turtle Feed Formula  

In terms of feed formula, the general requirement is for total protein to reach 44%. Most of the protein is provided by fishmeal. Of the total fishmeal, white fishmeal should account for 70%, with the rest replaced by red fishmeal. This will neither cause adverse effects on the growth of soft-shelled turtles nor reduce costs; a small portion of the protein can be provided by plant protein. To make extensive use of feed resources, plant protein can also be replaced by agricultural and sideline products such as bean dregs, wheat bran, and rice, as well as other plant-based feeds that soft-shelled turtles do not like. Add a certain proportion of premix such as vitamins and minerals.  

Reference formula:  

① Juvenile turtles: imported white fishmeal 43.5%, defatted red fishmeal 18.5%, corn protein powder 5%, high-gluten flour 6%, a-starch 15%, yeast powder 5%, squid powder 3%, additives (mainly multivitamins, turtle minerals, etc.) 4%;  

② Adult turtles: imported white fishmeal 40%, defatted red fishmeal 17%, corn protein powder 5%, high-gluten flour 9%, a-starch 15%, yeast powder 7%, squid powder 3%, additives (mainly multivitamins, turtle minerals, etc.) 4%. Generally, the raw material cost of feed with such a formula is about 5700 yuan/ton.  

Points to Note  

① Since there are many varieties of various raw materials to choose from, and it is difficult to judge the quality level of important raw materials such as fishmeal and additives from appearance, everyone is advised to be sure to find reliable suppliers with good reputation when purchasing raw materials.  

② Feed formulas should be adjusted as necessary according to the different growth stages of soft-shelled turtles. Generally, in the early stage, the protein content in the feed should be increased to accelerate the growth rate of juvenile turtles.

It can thus be seen that soft-shelled turtle farming is an investment project with low investment cost, a short cycle, and a relatively low threshold. This is also one of the reasons why so many people in rural areas choose to raise soft-shelled turtles, but raising soft-shelled turtles well is not a simple matter.