by
Zhang jin, Dong Qiufen and Zhang Song, Guangzhou Nutriera Group Co., Ltd; Ye
Xing, Pearl River Fisheries Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences.
Mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi (Basilewsky) (Order Perciformes, Family Percichthyidae), distributes in the major rivers and subsidiary lakes in east China (See Figure 1). It is a commercial fish native to China and has been hailed as one of “four Chinese famous freshwater fishes.” The flesh of the mandarin fish is delicate, sweet-tasting, and has extremely high medicinal value.
The Compendium of Materia Medica describes, “The flesh of mandarin fish is mildly sweet, non-toxic and is effective in the treatment of consumptive diseases by strengthening the spleen and stomach and through the kidney-tonifying and body strength.”
It is also the main ingredient in the signature Anhui cuisine dish, stinky mandarin fish. After the successful attempt of artificially breeding of mandarin fish in 1984, the mandarin fish industry started to grow, and the yield of mandarin fish increased yearly.
In 1993, the yield was only 9,000 tonnes, however, it reached 150,000 tonnes in 2003 and doubled to more than 300,000 tonnes in 2018 (See Figure 2), at a value of 21 billion CNY. As such, mandarin fish has become one of the most popular species cultured by prosperity-seeking Chinese farmers.
At present, farmed mandarin fish in China are mainly fed with dace and other wild fish. Producing one kilogram mandarin fish requires at least 4.5kg ofother forage fish, which results in a huge waste in aquaculture area.
Currently, a stocking density around 4.5 pieces of fish/m2 has been adopted in intensive mandarin fish culture, before, the indiscriminate increase in intensive stocking density has led to a rising trend in outbreaks of aquaculture diseases in mandarin fish farming.
In 2018, survival rate of mandarin fish fry was merely 30 percent, therefore, changes of farming methods are inevitable. Commercial feed has advantages of high efficiency, environmental friendliness and suitability of industrialised production. Thus, it has been regarded as the best alternative to live food for mandarin fish farming.
After nearly two decades of research and development, Chinese researchers have achieved breakthroughs on various aspects, such as the feeding physiology of mandarin fish, mechanisms of habituation of ingestion behaviour and nutrition requirements.
Mandarin fish feed has evolved from frozen fresh fish to moist feed, which contain fish paste during the transitory phase, and eventually to extruded feed with major breakthroughs, which have been achieved in feed manufacturing techniques.
Read more HERE.
Mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi (Basilewsky) (Order Perciformes, Family Percichthyidae), distributes in the major rivers and subsidiary lakes in east China (See Figure 1). It is a commercial fish native to China and has been hailed as one of “four Chinese famous freshwater fishes.” The flesh of the mandarin fish is delicate, sweet-tasting, and has extremely high medicinal value.
The Compendium of Materia Medica describes, “The flesh of mandarin fish is mildly sweet, non-toxic and is effective in the treatment of consumptive diseases by strengthening the spleen and stomach and through the kidney-tonifying and body strength.”
It is also the main ingredient in the signature Anhui cuisine dish, stinky mandarin fish. After the successful attempt of artificially breeding of mandarin fish in 1984, the mandarin fish industry started to grow, and the yield of mandarin fish increased yearly.
In 1993, the yield was only 9,000 tonnes, however, it reached 150,000 tonnes in 2003 and doubled to more than 300,000 tonnes in 2018 (See Figure 2), at a value of 21 billion CNY. As such, mandarin fish has become one of the most popular species cultured by prosperity-seeking Chinese farmers.
At present, farmed mandarin fish in China are mainly fed with dace and other wild fish. Producing one kilogram mandarin fish requires at least 4.5kg ofother forage fish, which results in a huge waste in aquaculture area.
Currently, a stocking density around 4.5 pieces of fish/m2 has been adopted in intensive mandarin fish culture, before, the indiscriminate increase in intensive stocking density has led to a rising trend in outbreaks of aquaculture diseases in mandarin fish farming.
In 2018, survival rate of mandarin fish fry was merely 30 percent, therefore, changes of farming methods are inevitable. Commercial feed has advantages of high efficiency, environmental friendliness and suitability of industrialised production. Thus, it has been regarded as the best alternative to live food for mandarin fish farming.
After nearly two decades of research and development, Chinese researchers have achieved breakthroughs on various aspects, such as the feeding physiology of mandarin fish, mechanisms of habituation of ingestion behaviour and nutrition requirements.
Mandarin fish feed has evolved from frozen fresh fish to moist feed, which contain fish paste during the transitory phase, and eventually to extruded feed with major breakthroughs, which have been achieved in feed manufacturing techniques.
Read more HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news
