Effectiveness of raising square head tilapia

(Baonghean)Arriving at the right time when Mr. Cao Xuan Duc's family - Block 2, Hung Nguyen Town was pulling the net with the locals to harvest square-head perch. Mr. Duc excitedly said: "For a long time, I have only raised silver carp, grass carp, and common carp in the entire pond area of ​​over 1,200m2, but the efficiency was not high. In early April this year, following the instructions of the Department of Agriculture staff, I converted the pond to raise square-head perch, found it easy to raise, the fish grew very quickly".

According to Mr. Duc, to raise this type of fish, he was provided with all the fry with an average weight of about 300 fish/kg, the stocking density was 9-10 fish/m2. The fry were healthy and even. The pond water had to be treated to be clean, the water level was nearly 1m before releasing the fry. To take advantage of the water surface and available food sources in the pond (waste from tilapia fed industrial feed), he also raised silver carp, bighead carp, and common carp with an initial weight of 3 fish/kg. The fish were released into the pond at the same time. Regarding fish feed, he used floating pellets combined with by-products such as rice bran and corn. The fish were fed twice a day, in the cool morning and evening, with the feed accounting for 3-10% of the fish weight. In particular, the pond water had to be changed 3 times a month and lime powder was used to treat the fish farming environment.



Harvesting square-head perch at Mr. Cao Xuan Duc's model - Block 2, Hung Nguyen town.

Thanks to the effective application of scientific and technological advances after 4 months, Mr. Duc has initially harvested nearly 800 kg of square-head perch. According to his calculations, this fish market is currently very popular, after harvesting, customers come to buy everything. The average weight of fish is 0.1-0.2 kg/fish, the selling price of fish fluctuates from 40-50 thousand/kg, so with 800 kg of fish, he has an income of nearly 45 million VND, minus the cost of feed and disease prevention, he has a net profit of over 17 million VND/4 months of farming. Particularly, the white carp and bighead carp in Mr. Duc's pond also bring in significant net income.

In addition to Mr. Cao Xuan Duc's fish farming model, Hung Nguyen district also implemented a square-head perch farming model at Mr. Ho Van Nguyen's household, hamlet 1 - Hung Tan, with a farming scale of 1,000m2. To support people in implementing the square-head perch farming model, the district allocated a budget to support 100% of the cost of seed (over 30 million VND/2 models), 30% of the cost of food, medicine for disease prevention, 100% of the cost of training and transferring the science and technology of square-head perch farming, at the same time, the district's Agriculture Department proactively coordinated with other departments to train 25 eligible farming households to participate in the model.

Currently, according to the initial assessment of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hung Nguyen district, in addition to bringing economic efficiency, the two models of raising square-head perch have initially affirmed their adaptability, the average survival rate of the two models reached 92%, the fish grew quickly, developed strongly, the cost of food, disease prevention and fish fry per unit of 1,000m2 is more expensive but the raising time is 4 months shorter, the yield and market price are 10-15 thousand/kg higher, so the revenue from raising square-head perch can increase 2 times compared to traditional fish.

Currently in the province, the movement of raising square-head perch has been widely deployed with many models bringing high efficiency in Dien Chau, Do Luong and Cua Lo districts. The provincial Department of Aquaculture has coordinated with Nghe An Aquatic Breeding Center to open training courses on science and technology for over 100 fish farming households in the districts. Mr. Ta Quang Sang - Head of Nghe An Aquatic Breeding Management Department, said: The project "Application of scientific and technological advances in raising square-head perch in Nghe An" is currently being implemented for 2 years from 2011-2013. Up to now, after nearly 1 year of implementation, the Aquatic Breeding Center has purchased, raised and provided breeds for localities to deploy farming on a total area of ​​5000m2 of water surface, with an estimated harvest of nearly 10 tons of square-head perch. According to Mr. Sang, the output market for square-head perch is very promising. In the coming time, the center will coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology to plan to expand the breeding subjects.

According to expert assessment: Squarehead perch is completely suitable for the aquatic environment of the province. However, in difficult conditions, the high price of fish seeds and the need to import from the South, many farmers who want to expand the farming model are worried about the source of fish seeds. Currently, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed the seed production units in the province to import good parent fish for proactive breeding, meeting the demand for fish seeds in terms of quantity and quality for localities in the coming time.

Luong Mai