Raising this specialty wide-mouthed fish species brings in a profit of 1 billion VND per year.

Mr. Duong Thanh Trang, an agricultural officer in An Thanh Nam commune (Cu Lao Dung district, Soc Trang province), said: “Mr. Kiet was the first person to apply the model of raising the specialty spotted catfish in the district. Later, many people tried to do the same but were unsuccessful, so they gave up the profession. Only Mr. Kiet has maintained and developed it well, so he has a great harvest every year, that's why it's so good...”.

Mr. Nguyen Van Kiet harvests and sells striped catfish.

An Thanh Nam commune has many stretches of land bordering large river mouths, and many people make a living by trawling, resulting in an abundance of various sizes of spotted catfish. According to many locals, spotted catfish come in two forms: those living in freshwater upstream areas and those living in brackish water (also known as saltwater) bordering freshwater in large rivers.

However, many traders consider the quality of catfish from brackish water to be better, so the purchase price is also higher, ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 VND per kilogram.

Knowing these characteristics, since 2011, on an 8,000m2 (8 công) area of ​​water surface, Mr. Kiet raised 12,000 juvenile striped catfish, purchased at 5,000 VND/fish from fishing boats in the main river. After 2 months of raising, he sold about 5,000 juvenile fish at prices ranging from 12,000 to 15,000 VND/fish; the remaining fish he raised for another 10 months and sold 8 tons at 100,000 VND/kg.

In this first farming season, after deducting all expenses, Mr. Kiet earned a profit of 800 million VND from selling juvenile and adult spotted catfish.

In 2018, Mr. Kiet harvested an estimated 12 tons of spotted catfish. With traders offering a deposit of 135,000 VND/kg, Mr. Kiet earned a profit of 1 billion VND.

According to Mr. Kiet, the breeding season for striped catfish usually runs from November to March of the following year. During this time, there is a plentiful supply of fingerlings in the rivers. Therefore, to raise striped catfish, farmers purchase fingerlings from those who use nets and traps along the large rivers and on the alluvial plains at the foot of mangrove forests.

There are plenty of fingerlings of striped catfish in the wild, so breeders only need to spend time raising them. The feed for striped catfish mainly comes from fish scraps, which are also easy to find and inexpensive...

Since 2014, Mr. Kiet has completely switched to raising and selling spotted catfish for meat. He explained: “Currently, spotted catfish fingerlings are being relentlessly hunted in the wild using all kinds of fishing gear. These fish are often very weak and the high risk easily leads to losses for farmers. Besides, I only buy standard spotted catfish to raise for meat. Doing so ensures a 'safe' outcome and also helps prevent the unnecessary extinction of young fish.”

This is the fish farm raising the specialty catfish species belonging to Mr. Nguyen Van Kiet's family.

Mr. Kiet shared his experience: "Raising snakehead fish requires close attention to easily occurring diseases such as intestinal disorders and white carapace disease... The pond for raising snakehead fish must be clean and well-ventilated... Snakehead fish should be fed twice a day, in the morning and afternoon. If raising a large number, use industrial pellet feed for snakehead fish. If raised according to standards, after 12 months, snakehead fish will reach a weight of 1-1.2 kg/fish..."

In 2017, Mr. Kiet sold 11 tons of striped catfish at 110,000 VND/kg. After deducting all expenses, he earned a net profit of over 800 million VND. In 2018, Mr. Kiet harvested an estimated 12 tons of striped catfish. With traders offering a deposit of 135,000 VND/kg, Mr. Kiet earned a profit of 1 billion VND.

Building on his success, in 2018, using the profits from his previous years' catfish farming, Mr. Kiet leased an additional 40,000 square meters of water surface along the Tien River to raise 300,000 freshwater prawns and hundreds of thousands of catfish. As the prices of freshwater prawns and catfish improved towards the end of 2018, Mr. Kiet earned a net profit of 1 billion VND from these two aquatic species.