Raising snakehead fish on the sand

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QUANG NAM – Building 11 ponds to raise snakeheads on the sand, Mr. Nguyen Kim, in Binh Duong commune, Thang Binh district, collects VND 100 million per year.

On the morning of mid-March, Mr. Kim, 40 years old, went to the farm about 500 meters from his house. On an area of ​​about one hectare, he spends an area making 11 ponds for raising snakehead fish (also known as calamari or fruit fish). He went to each lake to open the lock to let the water out, when it was 20 cm left, close it and let new water in. The pond for raising snakehead fish is changed twice a day in the dry season and once in the rainy season.

Mr. Nguyen Kim feeds snakehead fish.  Photo: Dac Thanh
Mr. Nguyen Kim feeds snakehead fish. Photo: Dac Thanh

After changing the water, Mr. Kim was busy getting food for the fish. Seeing the owner drop the food, thousands of fish scrambled, causing the water to splash. “Every day, I have to observe the aquarium, watch the fish swim and eat to detect the disease and then actively treat it, but when the fish is about to die, I can’t save it,” Kim said.

Previously, Mr. Kim sold goods but felt constrained by time. Accidentally learned the model of raising snakehead fish in the lake, 2017 he returned to his hometown to set up a business.

The farm is a white sandy area at the end of the village, with only a few cashew trees, phi lau, acacia melaleuca. The rainy season has a little green of the trees, the dry season is like a desert. “In the past, many people and I built houses on this land, but the heat couldn’t stand it, so we moved to another place to live. Since then, this area has been abandoned because we can’t grow any trees,” he said.

On the first day of his career, he rented a good drilling machine to get water and built a fish pond. Each lake is 15m long, 4m wide and 1m high. The lake is located under the sand 50 cm, the rest floats, the inside is lined with canvas to prevent water from flowing out. To prevent the hot sun, he built a net house above him.

Mr. Kim's farm is more than 1ha wide.  Photo: Dac Thanh
Mr. Kim’s farm was originally an area of ​​white sand with sparse trees. Photo: Dac Thanh

Initially, Mr. Kim invested 50 million VND in two ponds for trial farming. Snakehead fish is imported from the West at the price of 700 VND/head. In the first batch, farmed fish were slow to grow, often encountered diseases, so he only broke even. Gradually accumulating experience, he raised profits.

With capital, he has expanded the scale, up to now the farm has 11 lakes, of which one is a newly purchased nursery pond and 10 commercial fish ponds. In each lake, he raises 10,000 seeds. At harvest time, the loss is about 30%. The farm applies pillow-type harvesting. Every 20 days, he sells from 7 to 15 tons of snakehead fish to the market for 47,000 VND/kg. He earns an average of more than 100 million VND per year.

According to Mr. Kim, to achieve a high yield, the seed stage is very important. Good breeders are less susceptible to diseases, and those that do not have a high mortality rate will die. “There was a year when I lost more than 200 million dongs because the breed and the harsh weather caused the fish to die from disease,” he said.

In addition to raising snakehead fish, Mr. Kim raises more salamanders. In 2019, he caught more than 500 salamanders in the wild and released them on an area of ​​1,000 m2 of white sand. After two years, they reproduce and grow into more than 2,000 animals.

An iguana out in the sun.  Photo: Dac Thanh
An iguana out in the sun. Photo: Dac Thanh

Mr. Kim is expanding the barn and dividing it into many areas, where the salamanders are raised for breeding, and where they are raised for meat. The barn for raising this reptile is quite simple, just use fibro cement sheets around it to form a fence. The cement board is buried nearly a meter deep, so it is difficult for the proboscis to dig out, and the top is stretched with a net to prevent cats from eating.

The food of the salamander includes water spinach, zucchini, papaya, cassava leaves… which are available in the garden. Every morning, with a full meal, they lie down in the sun and then go to the shade under the trees and caves. In the rainy season from August to February next year, the salamander hibernates in the cave, the body regulates its own nutrition. Good resistance should not be susceptible to disease. Indigenous variety 10 fish/kg, Mr. Kim sold 450,000 VND; Hybrid salamander with 3 heads/kg selling for 400,000 VND. With this model, each year he collects 40-50 million VND.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Vinh, Vice Chairman of Binh Duong Commune, said Mr. Kim is a good farmer in the commune. His farm model brings high economic efficiency. The commune has completed the procedure to request the district to support him with capital to help him expand production.

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