SNAKEHEAD FISH FARMING PRATICE AND FEED TECHNOLOGY IN MAJOR ASIAN COUNTRIES

Dong Qiufen*, Zhang Taoping, Zhang Song, Yang Yong
 Guangzhou Nutriera Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
 Unit1209, Building1, Zone 4, Helenbergh Creative
Industry Park, Panyu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 511400, China
qiufendong@gmail.com
 

Snakehead fish became a news topic since 2002 as it's reported as one of the notorious invasive species in most US states, but it's been a very important food source with high nutritive values in Asian countries since many years. More and more researches on the salutary values of snakeheads have been done, and scientists already have found out this fish has the properties of wound healing, antimicrobic, antinociception, osteoarthritic treatment, antioxidation, cardiological effects and neurological effects.

There are several main snakeheads are commercially farmed in Asian areas: Channa maculata <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channa_maculata>, C. striata <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channa_striata>, C. asiatica <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channa_asiatica> and C. argus <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channa_argus>. China has the largest snakehead production volume with 300,000 MT yearly, the main farmed species is hybrid snakehead (C. asiatica ♀ x C. argus ♂). C. striata <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channa_striata> is dominant in Southeast and South Asian countries. Because of the restriction of fingerlings and feed, snakeheads are mostly farmed with big volumes in China, Vietnam and Thailand where have available artificial hatcheries and commercial feeds for this fish. With the technology promotion of Guangzhou Nutriera Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Myarmar and India have achieved successes on snakehead fry breeding, commercial farming and extruded feed development.

This presentation is a comparative analysis on snakeheads commercial farming and related feed used in the above Asian countries. The differences, problems and solutions of the farming practices and feeds will be listed, a practical farming procedure and a series of commercial feed formula are also given in the presentation.