Key Points of Frog Breeding Technology and Daily Management Methods
Frog meat is tender, low in fat and sugar, and rich in protein, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin C and various hormones. The market prospects for frog breeding have always been promising. Below, the editor will introduce frog breeding technology in detail for everyone!
Frog Living Habits
Frogs inhabit the grass along the banks of ponds, ditches and small rivers, as well as rice fields, preying on insects, mainly agricultural pests. Adults live an amphibious life on land and in water. During the day they generally hide in grass or rice fields, and come out to move about at night and in the early morning. When the temperature drops below 10°C, frogs burrow into the water's edge or soil to hibernate, and emerge from dormancy in the spring of the following year (early March in the Yangtze River basin). They generally breed from April to July. A female frog can lay 34 eggs at a time, and the fertilized eggs can hatch into tadpoles in 12 days. After tadpoles grow to a certain extent, they begin metamorphosis.
Construction of Breeding Ponds
Frog breeding ponds are divided into spawning ponds, tadpole ponds and adult frog ponds. Generally, it is advisable to choose a moist but warm, sun-sheltered place, and a long cement pond or earthen pond is suitable. A large outdoor pond of 4×6 m is one single pond; the pond walls are best plastered with cement, while the pond bottom still retains soil. A small courtyard pond is generally 1×1.5 m to 2 m, with a pond depth of generally 1 m, equipped with water inlet holes and drainage channels, and a water depth of 20~50 cm. The pond surface must be provided with shading boards. Generally, 40 adult frogs can be raised per square meter. Frog breeding ponds can use earthen ponds, brick ponds or rice fields, and the key lies in preventing escape. If conditions permit, a brick wall can be built, or a net enclosure can be used, generally 1~1.2 m high. The water depth in the pond is 30~60 cm. In the middle of the water or on the sunny side, a mound of soil is piled up to provide a land habitat for the frogs, and it accounts for about 1/3 of the entire pond. Grass or crops are planted on the mound. A small amount of floating aquatic plants is put into the pond water. For ponds used to raise tadpoles, only a small area of land is left for the young frogs to come ashore after metamorphosis. A cement pond is better for the tadpole pond, and the pond wall slope should be gentle to provide habitat for tadpoles.
Frog Breeding Management
1. Feeding and Management of Tadpoles
For artificially raising edible frogs, they must be raised and hatched after artificial egg collection. The tadpoles after hatching are cultured in the original hatching pond or net cage, with 600~800 tadpoles stocked per square meter of water surface. Artificial feeding begins on the 4th day after the tadpoles hatch. The tadpoles need to be raised for one week before being moved into the rearing pond. After about 20~30 days, they gradually take red worms, water fleas and fly maggots as their main food, and can also take soybean milk, okara, soybean cake powder and chlorella as their main food. Adding a certain amount of fish meal can promote their growth. Generally, for every 10,000 tadpoles, 15 cooked eggs are mashed and sprinkled with water for feeding 1~2 times. After the 5th day, switch to soybean milk, wheat bran, tofu residue mixed feed, or rice bran and fish meal and other feeds, put in 1~2 times a day. The feed is placed on feeding platforms; powdered feed should first be mixed with water into a sticky paste and then sprinkled for feeding.
① Management of tadpoles: When bubbles appear in the pond water or the water quality has a rotten smell, replace it with fresh water immediately, generally once every 3 days. In dry weather lasting many days and with continuous high temperatures, replace the water once every 2 days.
② Management during metamorphosis: About 70 days after the frog eggs hatch, they become young frogs. During the stage from the appearance of the forelimbs to complete metamorphosis, tadpoles mainly rely on absorbing the supply from the tail, breathe air with lungs, and begin to jump out of the water to come ashore and rest. When more than 90% of the tadpoles have become young frogs, they can be moved into young frog ponds for rearing.
2. Feeding and Management of Young Frogs
① Intensive taming: High-density concentrated enclosure rearing can use a density of 100~150 frogs per square meter, kept in a cement pond with smooth inner walls and a height of more than 1 m, with a water depth of about 20 cm. Feeding platforms are placed on the water surface, and no land is set up in the pond, forcing the young frogs to come onto the platforms to feed and rest together.
② Bait taming: First feed with fresh live bait for 1~2 days. On the 3rd day, begin adding 20% artificial feed to the bait, and then increase the proportion day by day. After 10 days, increase it to 80% "live bait" feed, mainly including earthworms, fly maggots, small fish and shrimp, insects, snails and loaches; "dead bait" refers to dried silkworm pupae, animal offal and mixed feed, etc. Use movement to lead stillness, activate the "dead bait", and finally transition to fully feeding on artificial bait. At the same time, feeding is required to be regular, quantitative and at fixed locations. Feeding time: in spring and autumn around noon, in summer in the evening or morning, 1~2 times a day, and each feeding should be finished by the young frogs within about 1 hour. For young frogs weighing less than 50 g, the feeding amount should account for 6~8% of body weight; for young frogs weighing more than 100 g, the feeding amount should account for 8~10% of body weight. The bait is required to be fresh, clean and nutritious.
③ Screening, grading and separate rearing: When young frogs have been tamed for 20~30 days, drain the pond water, and transfer the large-sized young frogs to adult frog ponds at a density of 60~80 per square meter for rearing; the small-sized young frogs remain in the original pond for taming. Using feed and indoor three-dimensional, multi-layer box and cage intensive rearing is a new method of frog breeding. Raising frogs in plastic boxes and wooden boxes for small-scale breeding gives extremely high output, and several hundred can be raised per square meter. Generally, from hatching to adult frog takes only 5 months.
3. Feeding and Management of Adult Frogs
After young frogs are transferred into adult frog ponds, their food intake is large and their growth speed accelerates, which is an important period for forming commercial output. In addition to supplying sufficient bait, when tadpoles metamorphose into frogs, it is necessary to increase the feeding of animal feed, mainly live bait with high protein and high reproduction rate, such as artificially cultured fly maggots, earthworms, red worms and chlorella water fleas. When live bait is insufficient, mixed feed can be used, such as 60% rapeseed cake (powdered), 30% rice bran (or wheat bran), 5% soybean powder and 5% fish meal, mixed evenly for a better effect. Tadpoles are active in the water, and after 5 days they can be supplied with refined feed, including soybean milk, egg yolk, water fleas, water spinach, tomatoes and aquatic plankton. In addition, raising earthworms on the soil mound: as long as a concentration of 3~5% limewater is sprinkled in sections on the soil mound every evening, the earthworms will come out in full force and serve as frog bait. Also feed an appropriate amount of mixed feed, and separate and rear them in time and adjust the rearing density. After adult frogs have been raised for 1 month, when the frog body weight reaches 100 g, the rearing density is 30 per square meter, and after 2 months it is changed to 10~15 per square meter. After a short period of further rearing, they can become commercial frogs and go on the market.
Frog Breeding Technology
The key to frog rearing technology is artificial breeding, because wild field frogs often have a parasite called Diplostomulum sp. parasitizing in the frog's muscles. Using the method of artificial egg laying and isolating adult frogs can effectively prevent this disease. Stock according to a density of about 1 group of breeding frogs per 3 square meters (stocking before May is better). Breeding frogs are required to be plump, and parent frogs that have been spawning for 1~2 years are best. The mixed male-to-female stocking ratio is 3:1, and the stocking density is relatively lower than that of meat frogs. It takes about three years from young frog to sexual maturity.
Breeding frog management should strengthen the feeding of protein feed, mainly earthworms, supplemented by moth-attracting worms. Maintain the normal balance value of the pond water, requiring it to be fertile and lively. When the water temperature stabilizes at around 22°C, prepare for spawning and hatching (at this time male frogs croak continuously). Female frogs above 50 g can lay many eggs at one time. Generally, male and female frogs in amplexus lay eggs on aquatic plants. Frog eggs are light yellow, round, and attached in sheets to a gelatinous egg membrane floating on aquatic plants, very easy to identify.
1. Spawning: The artificial spawning ground needs a still-water area. Generally, the cage spawning method is used, that is, forcing the frogs to spawn in baskets or cages. With a male-to-female ratio of 1:1, 5 spawning baskets or cages can also be placed in a 20-square-meter spawning area. The pond water depth should be kept at 10~15 cm, and the water temperature should be kept at 10°C~11°C. In order to increase the hatching rate, the egg sheets can be protected with a surrounding net to prevent parent frogs from disturbing them and causing them to sink.
2. Hatching: During the hatching period, the temperature of the fertilized frog eggs should be kept at 20°C~28°C, mainly natural hatching; the plastic film covering hatching method and the waterless hatching method can also be used. Generally, after 3~5 days, all can hatch into tadpoles. Newly born tadpoles depend on the egg membrane for safe survival, so do not stir the pond water casually. After all the frogs have spawned, catch the frogs out of the pond to avoid interfering with hatching and the living environment of the tadpoles. After the eggs hatch for 5 days, refined feed can be supplied, such as soybean milk, egg yolk, water fleas and aquatic plankton, fed 2 times a day, but the amount of bait should not be too much, so as not to deteriorate the water quality and cause tadpole death. After tadpoles have been raised for 1 week, they can be moved into rearing ponds for rearing.