Elopichthys bambusa

Commonly known as yellow croaker, yellow diamond, yellow cheek fish, pole fish, water tiger, large mouth bambusa, and bambusa.

Its body is slender, sub-cylindrical, and has a long pointed head. The snout is pointed and beak-shaped. The mouth is large and distal. There is a hard protrusion in the middle of the front end of the mandible that fits into the depression of the maxilla. No beard, eyes small and slightly protruding. There are 3 rows of hypopharyngeal teeth with hook-shaped ends. The scales are small. The dorsal fin is small and its origin is behind the pelvic fin; the caudal fin is deeply forked. The back of the body is grayish brown, the belly is silvery white, the dorsal and caudal fins are dark gray, and the cheeks and other fins are light yellow.

Mainly live in the middle and upper layers of rivers and lakes. They swim quickly, move quickly, and are ferocious in nature. They are carnivorous fish and are very gluttonous. They do not distinguish between meat and vegetarian food. They eat whatever they see. It can sometimes swallow fish larger than its mouth. It feeds on all kinds of fish (including snakehead fish) and is the enemy of freshwater fish.

The anchovy is a ferocious fish that feeds on live fish in natural waters. However, in artificial breeding, if live bait is still fed, firstly, the breeding cost is high, and secondly, a special breeding pond for feed fish needs to be equipped, and the palatability of the feed fish must be ensured, which is more troublesome. Experiments have shown that after domestication, the diet of anchovy has changed from eating live fish to eating dead fish (fish pieces). Therefore, the feed for catfish can be live fry in the early stage and fish pieces in the later stage. The domestication of the food habits of the anchovy can begin when the fish is about 5 centimeters long. Before the body length is 5 cm, palatable live fry should be fed.