Why do skilled fish farmers always stay one step ahead?

Program highlights: Seizing a business opportunity, he earned more than 10 million yuan in just over 2 months with 2 mu of fish ponds, and also helped many local farmers make money. In fierce industry competition, he always finds an unconventional path and discovers new wealth explosion points. What exactly is unique about his vision?

Reporter: Do you need to check them one by one, Mr. Tan?

Tan Jianbiao: Yes.

This is Tan Jianbiao's seedling breeding farm, and the person leading the workers to catch fish is Tan Jianbiao. The fish he is holding in his arms is a Chinese high-fin banded shark (myxocyprinus asiaticus).

Tan Jianbiao: This is a large Chinese high-fin banded shark, several dozen jin. Usually when you catch fish, you turn it over and it behaves. Hold its eyes.

Today Tan Jianbiao is going to dispose of the Chinese high-fin banded shark brood fish in the pond that have lost their reproductive capacity.

Tan Jianbiao: Today we are selecting fish, or to put it bluntly, culling. If we were to sell them, I wouldn't have the heart to. To eat them. If friends want them, give them to friends for viewing. They can't reproduce anymore.

Reporter: Which fish has lost its reproductive capacity? Tell me.

Tan Jianbiao: This one is done, it's thin, once it's thin it's done, so it gets culled.

Reporter: This fish is retiring?

Tan Jianbiao: Right, put it over here, okay.

Tan Jianbiao: You try.

Reporter: Okay, I'll try.

Tan Jianbiao: Be good, be good.

Reporter: This fish?

Tan Jianbiao: It'll hit you, it'll hit you.

Reporter: This fish still has reproductive capacity?

Tan Jianbiao: Yes, this one has it, this one is very fat, this one still has eggs, this section is the eggs. Reproduction, it can reproduce.

Reporter: Then this fish gets put back.

Tan Jianbiao: Okay, okay, release.

Reporter: I've put it back.

The Chinese high-fin banded shark is a freshwater fish, and in many places in southern China it has another name.

Tan Jianbiao: It has an alternate pronunciation, called "smooth sailing." Smooth sailing, so everyone, when they hold wedding banquets and invite people to eat in Sichuan and Chongqing, they make a fish dish called smooth sailing, taking its name. It's the same here, we call it that too, for the auspicious meaning. Look, so beautiful.

The Chinese high-fin banded shark gets the name "smooth sailing" because the fin on its back looks like a sailboat. In the aquatic market, the market for Chinese high-fin banded shark fry has always been good. A brood fish like this can bring Tan Jianbiao about 100,000 yuan in net profit each year.

Tan Jianbiao: At least, at least if things go smoothly, it can reach about 100,000 yuan.

Reporter: One fish?

Tan Jianbiao: Yes, one that can produce fry.

Reporter: 100,000 yuan still?

Tan Jianbiao: 100,000 yuan (net profit).

A profit of more than 100,000 yuan a year from one fish is nothing much to Tan Jianbiao. He told the reporter that he also has a fish weighing less than one jin that is very profitable. The reporter followed Tan Jianbiao into the seedling greenhouse and found that fish.

Tan Jianbiao: This fish, only this year have I gradually figured out that it can be bred once a year, and one fish can produce at most about 5,000 fry.

Reporter: One fish produces 5,000 fry?

Tan Jianbiao: 3,000 to 5,000 fry. You can't say that many because it's small. This female fish weighs less than one jin.

This fish has a peculiar appearance, yet it is in short supply on the market.

Tan Jianbiao: This one is easy to breed, the Chinese high-fin banded shark is difficult, very hard to breed. This one is very easy, like a loach, this one.

Reporter: How much can this fish sell for per jin on the market?

Tan Jianbiao: 100 yuan, it sells very expensive. The Chinese high-fin banded shark, 20 to 25 yuan per jin. The ones that won't die, I'll scoop them all out first. This fish is called the spiny eel, its mouth is pointed, and it has protruding spines on its back.

Tan Jianbiao: (Fry) once produced, 10,000 yuan, 2 yuan each, 5,000 fry is 10,000 yuan. Reporter: This fish?

Tan Jianbiao: Yes, it can produce 10,000 yuan for you (a year).

A spiny eel weighing less than one jin like this can earn Tan Jianbiao more than 10,000 yuan a year. By breeding different kinds of fish fry, Tan Jianbiao can earn more than 10 million yuan a year. For more than 20 years, almost every species Tan Jian has taken up, he has been able to seize the market one step ahead of his peers.

Fry dealer Guo Qiaohe: He focuses on innovation, and he does quite a lot to drive the farmers along, giving them exposure to new things. In the aquatic industry, he is, in my personal view, an outstanding figure.

Farmer Tan Yongji: In aquaculture, he has always had that innovation, that way of thinking, taking the lead one step ahead of others.

Now Tan Jianbiao has successfully bred fry of more than 20 species and led many local farmers to get rich together. What exactly is unique about Tan Jianbiao's vision?

Tan Jianbiao was born in this small village. Starting in 1990, Tan Jianbiao worked locally as an aquatic products dealer.

Tan Jianbiao: Move a bit to the side.

Today is the day when members of Tan Jianbiao's cooperative harvest largemouth bass.

Tan Jianbiao: Today one pond is selling about 150,000 jin, and we haven't finished weighing yet.

Reporter Liu Qingqing: One pond has 150,000 jin of fish?

Tan Jianbiao: Yes, their yields are very high. Right now it's about 10 mu of land, 8 to 10 mu. Look at the trucks, each truck holds 10,000 jin.

When Tan Jianbiao was trading commercial fish, he was always among the best of his peers. He would sort the fish by size at the pondside and load them onto trucks to send to different markets.

Tan Jianbiao: Generally speaking, this is the best size. Off we go, off we go. This one is a tiny bit oversized, but no problem, split among so many trucks. Some going to Guangzhou need big ones, Shenzhen needs just slightly smaller ones. Different places have different demands. Some big ones are even worth more. These going to the Northeast, Inner Mongolia are the most expensive.

By 1994, Tan Jianbiao selling more than 1 million jin of live fish a year could only earn more than 100,000 yuan. Until a special order changed his fate.

Tan Jianbiao: I originally traded big fish. Later a fisheries institute, a national fisheries institute, asked me to buy female fish back from among the big fish for them. For about 100 jin, I could earn more than 100 yuan. This net profit, so impressive, much better than trading commercial fish.

At that time Tan Jianbiao could earn one jiao per jin of fish. This deal let him earn 10 times the profit per jin compared with the past. Tan Jianbiao began to pay attention to that fisheries institute, and this gave him an unexpected discovery.