Tachysurus sinensis

WelfareScore | farm

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FishTalk

Tachysurus sinensis is a nocturnal catfish that lives in China, Laos, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, India, and Russia and has been introduced in Germany. It is cultured mostly in China, but also in Southeast Asia, and is consumed in China and other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea. T. sinensis reaches marketable size at 2 years (first year as FINGERLINGS/JUVENILES, another 8 months of growth in the second year until market size). It is sometimes polycultured with Erythroculter ilishaeformis. Males grow 30% faster than females and reach bigger sizes, and so the farming industry tried to focus on creating a breed of only males. There are many types of breeding technologies available for this species: selective breeding of broodstock from natural waters, cross‐breeding with other species such as Pelteobagrus vachelli, cell and genetic engineering breeding (which generates an all-male breed), and molecular marker‐assisted breeding.

However, there is little information available about their breeding behaviour, other than males provide parental care, and so natural breeding is not performed in farms. There is no information about migratory patterns, which could mean that there are none, however, further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. There is also a lack of information about their social behaviour, including aggregation and aggressiveness, about the situations that cause them stress, and about the level of malformations found in farms. Stunning and slaughtering protocols are not developed yet for T. sinensis, but there are available high-standard methods for other catfish species that could be studied in T. sinensis. In general, more research needs to be carried out in order to establish the biological needs of T. sinensis.

For details see: WelfareCheck | farm (latest major release: 2022-03-21)