Give birth to coral fish

Coral fish is a freshwater fish that has been included in the Red Book by the Mekong River Commission, because of the danger of extinction. For the first time, scientists at the National Center for Southern Aquaculture under the Research Institute for Aquaculture II in An Thai Trung (Cai Be, Tien Giang) are domesticated and successful in breeding.

Master Huynh Huu Ngai and a fish coral have been anesthetized to prepare eggs.(Photo: SGTT)

Saturday morning, but in the nursery tanks and the broodstock ponds of the National Center for Southern Aquaculture, there are still many people working. Mr. Huynh Huu Ngai, Ph.D., and Ph.D. - Director of Nam Bo National Aquaculture Center, Pham Van Khanh, head of the project of breeding, regenerating and developing coral fish, is looking intently. The fry in the nursery tanks, preparing to export 10,000 salmon fish to a company in Ho Chi Minh City.

' Squeeze ' fish breeds . carp

Dr. Khanh said: ' We have been raising coral fish since 2003 and for successful reproduction since 2005, this year we are sure to dare to give people to try and sell fingerlings to the market '. After several years of coordinating with the Mekong River Commission to implement international projects on the study of the habitat of native fish species, Khanh and his colleagues determined that the corals on the Mekong River are increasingly rare, so choose this fish as a domesticated object, for reproductive development.

Master Ngai said: In 2003, when we implemented the project, we had to go to An Giang and Dong Thap to order fishermen on the Tien and Hau rivers to find breeding fish but . no. Therefore, the center launched people to the provinces to investigate and found a source of breeding fish in the population, though not much.

These coral fish follow the water into the farmer's pond from a young age and are kept by them, domesticated as ornamental fish. So the center ' open campaign ' pleaded to buy fish from Tien Giang through Vinh Long, Dong Thap. As a result ' we have bought 84 coral fish with a total weight of about 1.2 tons with an average price of 100,000 VND / kg, brought back to domesticated ponds '.

Settling the broodstock stage, the project team is facing a new difficulty: there is no document mentioning the breeding process of coral fish. Frantically searching everywhere, even on the Internet, the scientists at the center finally determined that the fish of the same species as the common carp should try to ' force ' the fish . to reproduce in the style of carp.

After putting the fish on the sex syringe, rub the eggs for artificial insemination like carp, the scientists are anxious to wait for the results and are surprised because . successful. However, the ratio of reared fry at first reached only 1% in the pond and about 13% in the tank, so the project implementers did not disclose the information to successful fish but continue to research.

Open up the fish raising industry

Master Ngai said that after the modest success of 2005, the research team found that the ratio of reared fish raised to seabass was low due to inadequate water sources, inadequate broodstock, food for unsuitable juveniles and inexperienced project implementers. In 2006, coral fish parents weighed 8 kg / fish or more are allowed to separate ponds from the beginning of the crop, to May start to give birth and everything becomes smooth and cool.

Scientists in the project team estimated that in 2006, 400,000 breeding coral fish could be released. Mr. Ngai added that the center currently only gets 50% of the eggs of the mother's coral fish because this is a very difficult operation because the fish is too big, it can cause fish death. Scientists also experimented with spawning spawns in the tank but the percentage of fry was very low, probably because the fish were too big while the nursery was tight.

The domestication and successful spawning reproduction of the National Center for Southern Aquaculture has opened the future of commercial fish breeding in the population. The Master of Ngai and the ' fishmen ' of the project said that since March 2006, the National Center for Southern Aquaculture has given the breeding fish to the owners and owners in the pilot provinces.

After 3 months of raising, the weight of coral fish raising rafts and pens reached an average of 0.5 kg / head. Dr. Khanh and Master Ngai are excited: ' The development rate is good. At present, the demand for fish breeding in the population is quite large, hoping that commercial fish farming will develop strongly in the future because it is a delicious and sold fish meat . ' According to Dr. Khanh, coral fish can be raised to a few tens of kilograms to over 100 kg / head like live fish in natural environment, if conditions permit. However, raising fish with a weight of 10 kg / fish or more is able to sell commercial products. ' Strongly developing the pangasius culture, this fish will no longer be threatened with extinction ' - Dr. Khanh concluded.

Will appear regularly in the family tray?

Coral fish (scientific name Catlocarpio Siamensis ) belonging to the carp species, is a rare fish species of the Mékong river, often living in fast-flowing water, omnivorous sources of plants in nature, very delicious meat.Roasted sour fish soup with rice, banana is a specialty dish in restaurants in the Mekong Delta before.At one time, specialty restaurants in Long Xuyen, Chau Doc bought coral fish for 120,000 VND / kg, particularly the fish head price was 240,000 VND / kg.Coral fish can reach a weight of over 100 kg / head (the largest coral fish caught by An Giang fishermen on Vam Nao river weighing over 130 kg).From 6-7 years old, coral fish start to breed.However, in recent years, fish coral has become more and more absent from Tien and Hau rivers.Although scientists are still studying the growth process of this fish but hope in the near future, if sailing, swept, the figure of the coral fish will appear at large markets and meals of families.