February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

HISTORY AND STATUS OF PADDLEFISH AQUACULTURE IN CHINA
Hong Ji and Changzheng Wang
Department of Fisheries Science
Northwest A&F University
Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, PRC
jihong0405@hotmail.com
A total of 3,000 paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) larvae was first introduced into China from the United States in 1988. Importation
of fertilized paddlefish eggs has continued. In 2001, successful spawning of broodstock raised in China was achieved
in Hubei Province. Now, paddlefish is cultured in more than 10 provinces in China. The feeding habit of paddlefish is rather
similar to that of bighead carp, which is one of the major traditional fish species produced by Chinese aquaculture. Therefore,
Chinese fish farmers try to rear paddlefish as a substitute species of bighead in their production systems. Usually paddlefish
fingerlings (10 cm in TL) are cultured to market sizes in ponds or cages in reservoirs. Because of the limited supply of fingerlings
and the lack of equipment to catch paddlefish from large bodies of water, reservoir ranching as a production system has
not been developed. In ponds, paddlefish are reared in polyculture either as the primary species or as the secondary species.
When paddlefish is the primary species, the stocking rate of is 2400-4800 fishes/ha, and when grass carp are the primary species,
paddlefish are stocked at 900-3600 fishes/ha. In net cages, with the usual dimensions of 4m×5m×2.5m, suspended in
reservoirs, the stocking rates are 15-40 fishes per square meter if prepared diets are fed. The stocking rates are reduced to 1-5
fishes per square meters if the fish are not fed prepared diets and lighting is provided to attract zooplanktons as the natural diet
for paddlefish. There is still no specific diet designed for paddlefish. Currently, extruded feeds for snakehead, with a protein
level of 39% to 44%, is used for paddlefish culture. So far, paddlefish in China are cultured mainly for its meat rather than its
roes. The acceptable market size of paddlefish is 0.6-0.75 kg, which can be reached within six months if prepared diets are
provided; whereas, it takes about one year for paddlefish to reach the market size if no prepared diets are provided. Paddlefish
are usually marketed live since the processing industry has not developed. A few paddlefish are also raised and marketed as an
aquarium fish. There are only four paddlefish hatcheries in China, located mostly in Hubei Province. Together they can supply
only about 600,000 paddlefish fingerlings per year. Therefore, the short supply and high price of fingerlings are still the major
factors limiting the expansion of paddlefish production in China.
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