How to do tilapia pond farming? Summary of farming models in Gaoyao City, Guangdong

Whether it is the single-crop-per-year polyculture model, or the two-years-three-crops and one-year-two-crops intensive tilapia farming models, each has its own strengths. However, as requirements for aquatic product quality grow higher and higher, the latter two models will become increasingly common

□By Yan Wenhao, Zhang Bojie, Gaoyao City Aquatic Technology Extension Center

Guangdong Province is a major tilapia farming province in China, and its output accounts for about 50% of the country's total tilapia production. Gaoyao City is an important base for tilapia production, processing and export in Guangdong, and its tilapia farming scale, output and benefits all rank among the top in the province, having initially formed a tilapia industry chain including tilapia seed production, adult fish farming, processing and export, feed supply system, fish medicine management, and supporting technical services. In 2009, Gaoyao's tilapia farming area was 102,000 mu, with an output of 82,000 tons and an output value of 770 million yuan, accounting for 52% of the city's total aquatic product output, of which the processing volume reached 55,000 tons and the export value reached 46 million USD, with the export volume and export value accounting for 12% of the national total and 20% of Guangdong's respectively.

Tilapia has now become Gaoyao's dominant aquatic product, and tilapia farming has become one of the important ways for the broad masses of Gaoyao farmers to increase income and become wealthy. Pond farming of tilapia is the main model of tilapia farming in Gaoyao. The author summarizes the relatively typical tilapia pond farming models in Gaoyao City, and derives 3 tilapia farming models with Gaoyao characteristics, which are introduced as follows:

1. Single-crop-per-year polyculture model

The single-crop-per-year polyculture model is the traditional farming method of pond fish farming in Gaoyao. Its main feature is that, according to the biological characteristics of different fish such as habitat habits and feeding habits, different species, or the same species of different specifications (ages), are stocked in the same pond, thereby making full use of the water body space and the production potential of the ecological habits of different fish, in order to increase the yield per unit area and reduce production costs. Every year in April and May, mixed-culture species fry are stocked; in October, bighead carp and grass carp that have reached market specifications are caught, and fry are correspondingly stocked again; compound feed is fed, with a daily feeding amount of 2-4% of the total fish body weight, and one 1.5kw paddle-wheel aerator is provided for every 4-5 mu of water surface. Table 1 is an example of the single-crop-per-year polyculture model for Gaoyao tilapia.

2. Two years, three crops

The two-years-three-crops farming model is an intensive tilapia farming model, adopting the method of dense stocking in the early stage and gradually thinning out the stock during rearing, requiring at least three or more ponds as a supporting set. Throughout the farming process, compound feed is fed, controllability is strong, and product quality is relatively guaranteed. The daily feeding amount is 2-5% of fish body weight, and one 1.5kw paddle-wheel aerator is provided for every 4-5 mu of water surface. Table 2 is an example of the single-crop-per-year polyculture model for Gaoyao tilapia.

3. Two crops per year

The two-crops-per-year farming model is for farming large-specification tilapia, with a small amount of the four major Chinese carps as a supplement. For the first crop, in early April, overwintered large-specification tilapia fingerlings are stocked, 50g/fish, with a stocking rate of 800 fish/mu. Compound feed is fed, and after 4 months of rearing, each fish reaches about 500g, and all are caught and brought to market. Then the second crop of fry is stocked, with a fry specification of 50g/fish and a stocking rate of 1000 fish/mu. They are reared until March of the following year, with an average body weight of about 500g per fish, and the whole pond is harvested. Throughout the farming process, compound feed is fed, with a daily feeding amount of 2-5% of fish body weight, and water quality is regulated regularly; controllability is strong, and product quality is relatively guaranteed. One 1.5kw paddle-wheel aerator is provided for every 4-5 mu of water surface. Table 3 is an example of the two-crops-per-year model for Gaoyao tilapia.

In summary, the three farming models for Gaoyao tilapia each have their own strengths. The single-crop-per-year farming model is a traditional three-dimensional farming model; because product quality cannot be guaranteed and profits are meager, it has gradually decreased in recent years; the two-crops-per-year and two-years-three-crops models are large-specification tilapia polyculture models, unaffected by poultry and livestock manure, with relatively fewer diseases during the farming process, improving product quality, while both total output and total output value are relatively high; at the same time, input costs are high, requiring superior geographical conditions for farming and farmers with relatively strong farming technology. Through comparison and analysis of the three tilapia pond farming models, as requirements for aquatic product quality grow higher and higher and farmers' farming technology improves, Gaoyao's tilapia farming models are gradually shifting toward the two-crops-per-year and two-years-three-crops models.

Table 1 Single-crop-per-year stocking method with tilapia as the main species and domestic fish in polyculture

Table 2 Stocking method for two years and three crops of tilapia

Table 3 Two-crops-per-year stocking method with tilapia as the main species and domestic fish in polyculture

Table 4 Comparison of three aquaculture models