Early snakehead fry production relies on hot spring water to raise broodstock
Selling fry early does not bring high profits; the main goal is to win over customers.
Snakehead soaking in hot springs? That's right. Recently, a reporter from Southern Rural Daily learned during a visit to Sanjiao Town, Zhongshan City, that some snakehead fry farms, in order to produce early fry by the end of the first lunar month, meet customer demands and seize market opportunities, spare no expense in using hot spring water to raise broodstock. This is done to promote the gonads of snakehead broodstock to mature under natural conditions so as to enable fry production.
Liang Guihong of Yurong Aquatic Breeding Farm in Sanjiao Town, Zhongshan City, told reporters that on January 10, 2009, he had already loaded 10000 jin of 1-year-old female snakehead onto a truck and transported them to Hunan to soak in hot springs, where they were served good food and drink. Letting snakehead enjoy this "five-star aristocratic treatment," he had only one goal: producing early fry.
However, breeding good early fry is not easy. It is understood that the breeding season of snakehead is in spring, and they can only mature and spawn in water at 23°C to 26°C. The conventional practice of snakehead fry farms in Guangdong is to raise water temperature by building greenhouses to promote gonad development in broodstock. However, because winters and early springs in Guangdong have been continuously affected by cold waves in recent years, low temperatures last relatively long. Even with greenhouses, the water temperature inside cannot reach the spawning requirement due to low ground temperature. Therefore, through greenhouse culture, the number of broodstock that mature early is small, and the output of early fry is not high.
Liang Guihong said that the hot spring he found in Hunan had a water temperature exactly suitable for cultivating snakehead broodstock. After more than a month of rearing, the broodstock matured and could be transported back to Guangdong and placed in greenhouses to spawn and hatch. According to his production schedule, by the end of the first lunar month this year, snakehead water fry could be produced, and around Qingming, 3 cm large fry would be available for sale, half a month earlier than before. And by stocking fry half a month early, marketable fish (over 1 jin) could be raised and brought to market one month earlier. Liang Guihong said that most farmers stock fry around Qingming and begin large-scale marketing at the end of August. Farmers who stock early fry can sell fish in July, when prices are 1 to 2 yuan/jin higher than in August.
Marketable fish raised from early fry have higher costs, but the price is not high. Liang Guihong said that for snakehead fry of the same specification, his early fry and the fry sold around Qingming differ little in price. For 3 cm large fry, the former is only a few cents/fish more expensive than the latter, with a tentative price of 0.25 yuan/fish, and the price difference for water fry is within 10 yuan/10000 fry. But hot spring @#@233@#@, the increase in cost is considerable. He calculated that transporting 10000 jin of broodstock to Hunan to soak in hot springs increases costs by more than 10000 yuan compared with conventional farming.
Liang Guihong said that, conservatively estimated, 10000 jin of snakehead broodstock can produce 50000000 fry. According to farming habits, snakehead farmers mainly buy water fry. By this calculation, although early fry prices are slightly higher, the money earned is not much. If there is some loss of broodstock during transport, then producing early fry carries the risk of losing money. However, he stressed that producing early fry is not for earning more @#@3@#@; the selling price of early fry is slightly higher, but the cost is also somewhat higher, and the profit is about the same as for fry produced after Qingming. The main purpose of doing this is to win over customers who want to stock early fry.
He believes that farmers who stock early fry are all high-quality local customers, with capital, large scale, technology, courage and influence. Cooperating with this type of farmer brings obvious benefits to the fry farm: gaining stable customers, and through those customers influencing nearby farmers, expanding sales and enhancing its own brand.
However, some industry insiders are somewhat worried about the farming benefits of early spring fry, pointing out that before Qingming, cold waves still move southward, and when early fry are stocked, the unstable weather inevitably affects snakehead growth. In this way, compared with conventional farming, the time for early fry to reach market size is delayed, and there may even be no obvious advantage, while still having to endure the farming risks brought by cold waves. In addition, there is also this concern: after all, fry bred by raising water temperature through greenhouses or hot springs are off-season fry, and whether their quality can remain consistent with fry produced under natural conditions is still worth discussing.