How to raise fish without drugs? An analysis of five key points of ecological aquaculture

Ecological aquaculture is especially hard work.

Producers move around the edges of the various fish ponds at every time of day, patrolling along the pond banks, sometimes stopping, sometimes scooping up water with their hands to try the pond water, all in order to observe the five phases in the pond: 1. the water phase 2. the algae phase 3. the fish phase 4. the feeding phase 5. the soil phase.

On this basis they adjust: 1. feed 2. water quality 3. dissolved oxygen

This is to respond to the physical changes produced by the various ecological communities in the pond. The physical changes of the five phases in the pond are quite subtle, and when observing them the mind must be quiet and steady; you cannot just glance at the flowers while riding past. Sometimes beginners stare until their eyes knot up and still may not necessarily see the clues.

The speed at which each phase changes (turns bad) differs; usually the speed of turning bad is faster than the speed of turning good. If 2 phases or even 3 phases change together, a multiplying effect appears, and then it is a big deal!

The fish school will definitely show signs:

1. In mild cases, they swim back and forth near the bank, but the fish still have a certain alertness and are not easy for people, birds, dogs… to catch.
2. In severe cases, they will float to the surface, move sluggishly, and look somewhat dull, making them easy for wild birds and wild dogs to eat.
3. In worse cases, you will see the fish bodies turn white and they are almost beyond saving.

At this time, producers who lack patience, fear losses, or are in the habit of using drugs will directly apply medication to control the condition of each phase. Compared with the slow adjustments of ecological aquaculture, drug treatment is easier to control, simpler, and less likely to cause losses.

But the ponds of ecological aquaculture practitioners use symbiotic polyculture, stocking bottom-layer, surface-layer, and migratory fish species, and also distinguish between plant-protein and animal-protein fish species. The stocking density is lower, and the pond water ecology itself already has a certain amount of algae and fungi maintaining balance.

If it is going to turn bad, the speed will also be delayed because the pond water conditions are better. The changes in the pond phases, for example in terms of a person, are like judging whether there is any ailment from the body's external appearance (face, tongue, skin). If someone has an abnormal condition, 100% of the time a message will be sent from some part of the body as a warning, telling the owner that the body must rest, drink more water, or should seek medical care and recuperation.

Traditional Chinese medicine will diagnose the condition and prescribe medicine according to the messages on the body and the conditions the person describes, eliminating the illness from the root. Western medicine, by contrast, uses various instruments to examine, produce various values, and then judge the severity of the problem from whether each set of data is above or below the standard values.

But illnesses that instruments can detect are usually already severe, because illnesses that are too mild mostly cannot be shown, and then medicine is prescribed randomly to test the curative effect, waiting a week or a month to see whether it works.

Western medicine usually has side effects; it eliminates condition A but adds condition B (or even condition A is only a surface symptom that has been eliminated and has not been eradicated from the source). It is like taking antibiotics to treat a cold, when in fact the vast majority of colds require a course of 5-7 days and will heal because of the body's immune system. Most are not cured because of antibiotics.

In ecological aquaculture, we rarely act like Western medicine, holding all kinds of testing instruments, testing water, testing dissolved oxygen, testing pH, testing out a whole lot of data, and then according to the data putting in various drugs to control, or kill, or destroy. Then we wait a period of time to withdraw the drugs, striving for non-toxicity.

We are more like traditional Chinese medicine, emphasizing observation.

1. Look at the water:
Check whether there are bubbles or abnormalities at the tail of the pond.
Check the water flow after the paddlewheel aerator stirs the water, and whether there is too much foam and what its size and condition are.
Check the color of the pond water to judge the properties of the water.
Taste a mouthful of pond water to experience the salinity and astringency.

2. Algae phase:
Algae are a very important part of whether pond water is good or bad.
If the pond water changes, the algae phase generally changes along with it.

3. Look at the fish:
Whether they swim happily, and whether they play, frolic, turn over, and jump in the pond.
Whether the fish scales glisten.

4. Seeking feed:
Whether the feeding situation involves scrambling for food, and whether there is bottom feed left undigested.

5. Bottom mud:
If the fish pond's culture period is relatively long, or the culture conditions are relatively poor.
Whether the condition of the bottom mud easily releases abnormal bubbles and dissolves out abnormal substances.

If a small problem arises in each phase, adjustments must be made. Reduce feed, introduce water, increase oxygen, and use various different physical methods to adjust according to the root of what is happening.

The adjustment must seek ecological balance in the pond, so that all species, regardless of size or whether they have economic value, can develop in a balanced way and should all be cared for.