Trial farming of hybrid snakehead in Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province achieves initial success

In July last year, Nanhu District of Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, introduced 65,000 fry of the hybrid snakehead "Hangli No. 1" from the Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and stocked them in a 10-mu pond at the Weixiang Aquaculture Professional Cooperative. After half a year of trial farming, these hybrid snakeheads grew from the original 6-7 cm per fish to an average size of 0.5 kg per fish, with the largest reaching 1 kg per fish, and the survival rate reached 70%. The trial achieved initial success, and the farming techniques have been mastered.

During the farming process, after obvious size differences appeared among individual fish, they were graded and cultivated twice, at about 0.25 kg per fish and 0.4 kg per fish respectively. The feed used was extruded pellet feed specially formulated for hybrid snakehead, fed three times a day. Before feeding, water was splashed and the water surface was tapped to attract the fish to gather and compete for food. In terms of water quality regulation, aquatic plants were grown on about 1/5 of the pond surface area to regulate water quality and provide hiding and shade for the fish. The pond was disinfected about every 30 d, and fresh water was added every 10-15 d, with water changes depending on the actual water quality. In recent years, conventional snakehead farming has faced problems such as non-point source pollution, germplasm degradation, and product safety. Compared with conventional snakehead farming, hybrid snakehead farming has advantages such as stronger disease resistance, acceptance of pellet feed, and greatly reduced water exchange and drainage. Now that hybrid snakehead trial farming has succeeded in our district, its market prospects are promising.