How to Feed Grass Carp with Forage During the Organic Grass Carp Stocking Season

    It is currently the organic grass carp stocking season. At this time, water temperatures are low, organic grass carp are less active, and their scales are tightly set, which makes seining and harvesting easier and reduces the risk of injury to the fish, thereby improving the survival rate. Organic grass carp is a typical herbivorous fish; juveniles begin eating grass at a body length of 5 cm. A grass carp weighing more than 250 grams can consume 125 to 180 grams of grass per fish per day. When feeding grass carp with grass, keep the following points in mind:

Grass Carp Farming

    1. The forage fed should be fresh and tender.Fresh, tender forage is rich in nutrients and low in fiber, is readily eaten by grass carp, and is easy to digest, enabling grass carp to grow quickly. Therefore, fresh, tender forage should be used to feed grass carp whenever possible. Long-leaf green tender grasses with parallel veins should be fed, and broad-leaf forages with netted veins that grass carp do not eat should not be fed; ryegrass, Sudan grass, and similar wild long-leaf tender grasses are best. At the same time, observe how the grass carp feed; grasses they prefer should be fed more to meet their growth needs.

    2. Aquatic water plants are not suitable for feeding.According to experiments, a grass carp can gain 1 kg of meat by eating 15 kg of terrestrial grasses; whereas if it eats aquatic water plants, it needs to eat 60 to 80 kg to gain 1 kg of meat. Therefore, when the supply of aquatic water plants is insufficient, they can be fed sparingly or not at all.

    3. Feed different forages according to the size of the fish.In the juvenile stage, grass carp have small mouths and cannot be fed coarse, hard forage; they should be fed Cyperus grass, small duckweed, and similar plants, or fresh tender long-leaf grass chopped into pieces before feeding. As the fish grow larger and their mouths widen, you can transition to feeding conventional fresh, tender forage.

    4. The feeding method must be appropriate.When feeding grass to grass carp, feed at fixed times every day, in sufficient amounts, and evenly; try to scatter the forage so that the grass carp can eat their fill, eat well, and eat evenly, thereby improving the farming results. Also adjust the feeding amount according to the weather, water quality, and grass carp activity to meet the grass carp's need for forage. It is strictly forbidden to feed forage that has been stored too long or that is moldy and spoiled, to avoid grass carp becoming infected with disease.