Liang Guihong Makes a Fortune by Breeding Snakehead Fry
Liang Guihong, owner of the Yurong Aquaculture Breeding Farm in Sanjiao Town, is enjoying a double dose of good news. First, "Huinong No. 1" hybrid snakehead breeding technology research and application, for which he served as one of the main developers, has passed appraisal by the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and is now in the public notice period, with hopes of winning the city's annual science and technology achievement award. Second, the "Yurong" brand trademark he registered for "Huinong No. 1" hybrid snakehead has passed review by the trademark authorities and is in the public notice stage.
Eight Years to Breed Superior Fry
Liang Guihong has been engaged in snakehead breeding for a full 20 years. Previously, he raised shrimp, raised the four major Chinese carps, and also grew osmanthus, but none of it made money. Since entering the snakehead breeding industry, business has flourished day by day. Even so, he felt that traditional snakehead breeding had many problems, such as a long growth period, small size, frequent diseases, low survival rate, low yield, unsuitability for long-distance live fish transport, and high farming costs, all of which greatly hurt farming profits. The quick-witted Liang Guihong was determined to make some changes.
Starting in 2000, Liang Guihong tried drawing on the breeding experience of hybrid rice to cultivate high-quality hybrid snakehead fry. After many trials, he finally settled on using the Hunan-produced northern snakehead (Channa argus) as the male parent and the Hong Kong, China-produced spotted snakehead (Channa maculata) as the female parent, carrying out crossbreeding through selection and intensive rearing of the parent fish. Through research on the effects of various induced-spawning doses on synchronized spawning of parent fish under different temperature conditions, he determined the optimal induced-spawning dose, solved the problem of unsynchronized development, spawning and sperm release in parent fish, and obtained the superior snakehead variety "Huinong No. 1."
The appraisal conclusion of the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau shows that "Huinong No. 1" grows 50% faster than its parent the spotted snakehead, reaches a market size 50% larger within the same farming cycle, and averages more than 600 grams per fish. Because of its strong disease resistance and high survival rate, the average yield per mu reaches 2,550 kg, an increase of more than 1,250 kg, while farming costs are reduced by 20%.
Hoping to Double Farming Area Next Year
Liang Guihong currently has more than 180 mu of farming water surface in Shalan Village, Sanjiao Town, plus 26 indoor hatchery ponds with a total area of 600 sq m.
According to Liang Guihong, last year he hatched a total of 8,000 snakehead fry, of which only just over 1,000 were bred by himself.
Liang Guihong did the math for the reporter: at present he sells water fry (newly hatched tiny fry) at 450 yuan per 10,000, with a net profit of more than 200 yuan, so from selling water fry alone his annual net income exceeds 1.4 million yuan. Although this is not a particularly huge figure, considering that the entire farm has only 15 employees, a net profit of 100,000 yuan per person per year is still quite satisfying. What's more, there is also income from selling fry.
Helping Neighboring Villagers Get Rich Together
Wu Yuming, director of the Sanjiao Town Agricultural Service Center, believes that what makes Liang Guihong unique is not how much money he has earned, but that he has helped neighboring villagers get rich.
Wu Yuming said that breeding snakehead fry is a project with low investment, small land use, short time and quick returns. Villagers can take water fry from Liang Guihong without paying a single cent upfront, put them in their own fields, and need only two or three mu of land, or even one mu, to do it. No feed is needed during this period, and they only need to master basic fry-rearing techniques. After 12-15 days, when the water fry grow to 2.5-3 cm, they can be sold at 0.2 yuan each. After selling the fry, they then pay Liang Guihong for the water fry. Even taking a 50% survival rate into account, the farmers who rear them earn more than double the profit. A villager from Jiemin Village next to Shalan Village once told Wu Yuming that since April this year, he had earned more than 60,000 yuan by rearing Liang Guihong's water fry on contract.
At present, more than 30 households in Shalan Village and nearby villages have taken water fry from Liang Guihong to raise, bringing everyone a quick and easy path to wealth.