Can you make money farming Japanese koi? Villagers in Xiazhuang Town, Laixi can earn 300,000 yuan a year

These days, ornamental fish can be seen in plenty of hotels and restaurants. A reporter learned yesterday during an interview in Xiazhuang Town, Laixi City, that the Japanese koi farmed by local farmers ship more than 7 million fish each year, accounting for about one third of the supply in the Qingdao market. In addition to Qingdao, the koi farmed by the villagers are also sold as far away as Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. □Reporter Zhao Jie

Farming koi can earn 300,000 yuan a year

Red, yellow, white, fish of all colors gathered together, competing for food... Yesterday afternoon, when the reporter came to Panjiatuan, Xiazhuang Town, Laixi City, two workers were feeding the fish at the farm area belonging to villager Pan Lei. In Xiazhuang Town and the Jihongtan area of Chengyang, Pan Lei has contracted about 120 mu of land in total, all built into fish ponds, with 7 workers helping him farm the large ornamental fish Japanese koi.

Starting in 2001, Pan Lei took over the family farming business. At first he raised silver carp, but after several years, because coastal areas did not particularly accept freshwater fish, the market price was not ideal and the farming results were not good. After traveling elsewhere to investigate and learn in many ways, Pan Lei set his sights on ornamental fish farming. Although at first the whole family had no confidence, after years of persistence, Pan Lei's farm now ships 5 million fish a year, with annual income above 300,000 yuan.

The most expensive koi sold for 20,000 yuan each

An adult koi brood fish weighing about two kilograms can lay about 200,000 eggs each year, and the final survival rate after successful fertilization and hatching into fry is about 60%. From the time they are very small fry, customers come to buy them. At first, because they are small, the koi are still sold by weight. As they gradually grow larger, from the initial 10 yuan per jin, 20 yuan per jin, all the way to 200 yuan per jin and 500 yuan per jin, once they are raised even larger, they can be sold by the fish, several hundred yuan or several thousand yuan each, with prices varying.

"If you want to talk about something valuable, I really have sold something valuable here." Last year, a Japanese koi brood fish raised by Pan Lei weighed about 8 jin and was 90 cm long, with red and white colors, and a customer from Yantai took a liking to it at first sight. After negotiation, the price was set at 20,000 yuan. "But this kind of transaction is rare after all, and brood fish are not sold casually. A fish like this has been raised for at least five or six years, which is not easy."

7 million adult fish sold each year

Every year from July to September is the concentrated growing period for the fish. In Pan Lei's own ponds alone, about 1,500 jin of fish food is consumed in a day. Now that the weather is turning colder, the fish eat less and are unwilling to come out and move around at the bottom of the water. However, Pan Lei and the workers do not dare to be careless. To keep the fish warm through the winter, they made preparations in advance. In addition to moving the smaller fry into greenhouse areas for farming, frequently changing the water and adding oxygen in the outdoor open-air ponds, they also have to constantly watch for weather changes and be ready at any time to break ice and clear snow.

Seeing that Pan Lei's farming business had prospects, more than 20 farmers in surrounding towns also joined in, and the local annual ornamental fish shipment exceeds 7 million fish. "Many people at Nanshan Market get their goods from us. In addition, many hotels and real estate project promotion events also buy tens of thousands of yuan worth of fish at a time." In addition, fixed buyers from Yantai and Weihai around Qingdao, and even Beijing and Shanghai, also come here every year to seek out the fish.

Koi can be called the "king of ornamental fish"

Japanese koi is a valuable large ornamental fish, hailed in Japan as a "living work of art," a "living gem in the water" and the "king of ornamental fish." The lifespan of Japanese koi is usually 60-70 years, and the body length can reach 1-1.5 m. The wonder of these koi is that, with changes in age and environmental water temperature, the color, luster and form of their patterns also keep changing, just like a specially painted ink-wash painting. Top-grade koi are one in a thousand, and one must look at bloodline, skeleton, color, patterns, swimming posture and so on. Those with too mixed colors are culled. This is similar to a beauty contest, and only in this way can famous and valuable koi be raised.