How to Raise Catfish? A Detailed Explanation of the Key Points of Catfish Farming Techniques

Catfish mainly live in the middle and lower layers of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds, and are mostly active in coastal zones. During the day they mostly hide in grass, under stones or on the deep bottom, and at night they forage frequently. After autumn they live in deep water or mud to overwinter, and their feeding intensity also weakens. They are carnivorous fish, and their prey is mostly small fish, such as Hemiculter leucisculus, crucian carp, gobies, topmouth gudgeon, common carp, loach, etc., and they also eat shrimp and aquatic insects. They mainly swallow their food, and the role of their teeth is mainly to prevent food from escaping. Catfish are the most widely distributed fish in the family Siluridae. They are distributed in eastern Russia, Korea, Japan, and throughout eastern Asia, and are farmed in every province of China.

Fish Pond Site Selection

For local farming of Hong Kong catfish, the construction and site selection of the fish pond are crucial. The quality of the pond conditions not only affects daily management, but also affects the economic benefits of farming. For the pond site, choose a location in front of or behind a house with a guaranteed water source, good water quality, and convenient drainage and irrigation, so as to facilitate daily management. At the same time, it should be as close as possible to an orchard or planted crops, so as to give full play to the role of insect-attracting lamps.

Fish Pond Construction

1. According to the terrain, you can choose to dig down to build the pond or build the pond on the ground. Digging down to build the pond helps stabilize the water temperature and keep it warm in winter, which is good for fish growth, but there must be effective drainage conditions. The method is to dig about 70 cm into the ground, build a brick wall about 50 cm high on the ground, and make the whole pond about 1.2 m deep. The method of building the pond on the ground is to build a brick pond body about 1.2 m high on the ground. The pond area is preferably 10-20 sq m, and the shape is generally rectangular.

2. The fish pond should be equipped with an upper and a lower drainage outlet. The upper drainage outlet is set at about 25-30 cm from the upper edge of the pond wall, to prevent the pond water from overflowing in the rainy season and the Hong Kong catfish from escaping with the water; the lower drainage outlet is used for daily water changes and for draining water to catch fish.

3. The fish pond is best made with a brick structure. The pond walls and bottom should be smoothed with cement mortar so that they do not leak. The water injection depth is about 0.9 m. A certain number of tile tubes, tile jars and the like should be placed at the bottom of the pond as artificial caves for the Hong Kong catfish to inhabit.

Fish Pond Disinfection

Before releasing the fry, the pond must be disinfected. There are two methods. The first is the dry pond method: drain or pump out the pond water, and after exposure to the sun, evenly spread quicklime over the whole pond at 75 g per sq m. On the first day, inject new water, leave it for 4-5 days, then replace it with new water, leave it for another 2-3 days, and then the fry can be released. The second is the water-holding method: use 220 g of quicklime per cubic meter of pond water, slake the quicklime into a slurry, and splash it evenly over the whole pond while it is still hot. After the toxicity of the quicklime disappears, begin to fertilize the water quality.

Methods for checking whether the toxicity of quicklime has disappeared:

1. Test the pH value of the pond water. If the pH value drops below 7, it indicates that the toxicity of the quicklime has disappeared.

2. Observe whether there are water fleas in the pond water. If there are water fleas, it indicates that the toxicity has disappeared.

Fertilizing the Water Quality

After the fish pond is disinfected, about one week before releasing the fry, begin to fertilize the water quality. After the water is injected to 0.9 m, biogas residue can be used as the base fertilizer for the fish pond, with about 250 g of biogas residue added per sq m of fish pond.

Releasing the Fry

The fry released for 6 days should be uninjured, disease-free, healthy and lively. The fry size should be above 3 cm and as consistent as possible to avoid cannibalism. In daily management, disease prevention work is especially important. When releasing the fry, the fish body must be disinfected. The method is to dilute 1 kg of salt with 30 kg of water, soak the fry in the salt water for 5 minutes, and only then can they be released. Before releasing the fry, a small amount of pond water can be put into a container, and a few fry can be placed in it for trial rearing; if the fry live normally within one day, then the fry can be released into the fish pond. It is best to release them on a sunny day. For every sq m, 50-100 fry with a body length of 3—5 cm can be released.