The Success of Yellow Catfish Aquaculture in China: From Rare Wild Fish to Popular Farmed Fish

Commercial culture of yellow catfish requires a relatively short period of only two years to bring hatched eggs to market-size fish. At the end of the twentieth century, yellow catfish aquaculture was only in its initial stages of development. Fry were collected from the wild, making it difficult for it to develop into a large-scale sector. The most famous ecologically-sound, healthy culture model has been developed with advances in disease control and prevention in yellow catfish aquaculture, which has encouraged farmers to readily volunteer to invest in yellow catfish culture. In China, catfish are cultured in ponds, lakes, reservoirs, rice fields, rivers and other waters. Pond culture is divided into two models according to the developmental stages of yellow catfish. One model focuses on fingerling cultivation, the other on commercial-size fish culture. High density and intensive farming has gradually become a popular trend of yellow catfish culture.