Fish farm monitoring report for outdoor aquaculture of far eastern catfish Silurus asotus in Korea

This study aimed to investigate the growth performance of far eastern catfish (Silurus asotus) on outdoor fish farms to obtain basic data for the domestic eastern catfish aquaculture industry. An outdoor fish farm was directly monitored from June 2018 to October 2019 to determine the farming conditions, growth performance, and water quality. The growth performance in 2017 was analyzed using data from the same fish farm. Three years of monitoring showed that the fish farm required approximately 5-6 months between stocking, harvesting, and selling an S. asotus batch. The growth parameters, namely, the weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR) for culture periods, SGR for feeding periods, and feed coefficient rate (FCR), were 4,664.7%, 1.27%, 2.43%, and 1.25 in 2017; 6,452.0%, 1.52%, 2.79%, and 1.42 in 2018; and 3,270.0%, 1.11%, 2.12%, and 1.38 in 2019, respectively. Moreover, the WGR was two-fold higher in 2018 than 2019, whereas the FCR was more effective in 2019 than 2018, presumably because of the stocking density. No mass mortality was observed during the water quality analysis. The results of this study provide basic data for the development of the catfish industry.