Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations SWAI FISH

Does anyone know if these could be raised in a pond?

Check them out on the internet. They are not considered to be as good as channel cats. They grow tons of them on trash or worse food. Their name is shark catfish.

This is a real tough one. Whatever they are called -- swai, basa, bocourti, river cobbler, panga, or many other names, they are generally fish from south east Asia that compete with US channel catfish.

Are they safe? Are they sustainable? From my personal and professional knowledge, nobody seems to really know.

Taste-wise, they have a pretty good reputation.

These are fish that I wish we knew a lot more about.

Any good information and research out there??

Ken,basa costs more then swai and is a different type of catfish. Their diet is what concerns me.

They are cheap, that is for sure! Walmart sells their fillets and so does another grocery chain. I have bought them in the past and think they taste good. Their flesh is finer than CC. I sure hope they don't bring them to America for yet one more soon to be invasive species swimming in the Mississippi...

This was more of curiosity on the issue. If they would be another nuisance like Asian carp then no we do not want them.

They are pretty cheap to buy kind of like Tilapia.

I had some for the first time last night and it was pretty good, but I am with many others I do not care to buy or consume fish that has been raised in Asia.

They may be just as safe as some of ours but it still concerns me.

I "believe" they are cold sensative like tilapia so they would be limited in the waters they could exploit year round. Florida of southern texas maybe....

There is a fair amount of information about these fish with the common names as noted by catmandoo above: swai, pangus, pangus catfish, pongas, bocourti, river cobbler, panga, or other names, they are generally fish from south east Asia that compete with US channel catfish; scientific name of Pangasius pangasius.
http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/speciessummary.php?id=292

The government is enforcing laws mislabeling these fish as grouper and are often now called "farm raised grouper". I've eaten it frequently and it has always tasted good (most recently cooked as "blackened" in Florida last week) and I've never had any ill affects so far. IMO they taste better with milder and slightly sweeter flavor than channel catfish. I can recognize the cooked fillet as it is very white, flakey, slightly soft texture with a very few of the threads or fine strings in the flesh that are characteristic of channel catfish. I asked the manager if the fish was swai and he said they were pangas and they called it "farm raised grouper" because it can not legeally be called grouper. Some are saying they do not trust the fillet quality since the fish are grown using questionable methods in S.E.Asia.
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021307/met_7863256.shtml
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/05/Southpinellas/Restaurateurs_say_sto.shtml

This is an interesting post about farm raised fish from another forum.
Quote:
The ratio of "good" vs "bad" long chain fatty acids in farmed fish depend on the species of fish that you are talking about and the type of food that it is fed. Farmed fish such as talapia and catfish, which are fed mostly vegetable based foods supplemented with plant oils, do show elevated levels of undesirable omega-6 LC fatty acids than their wild counterparts. However, farmed marine species such as salmon and cobia are still fed food pellets that contain fish proteins and fish oils. They typically show similar ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids as their wild counterparts.

There has been a lot of effort put into finding substitutes for fish oils and fish meal in the aquaculture industry. The price of both commodities has gone up. There is of course an ecological downside to depleting forage species (fishing down in the food chain) that is important to us sport fishermen. In addition, some sources of fish oil have been contaminated with PCBs and other lipid soluble toxins. When these contaminated oils are included in fish food, the toxins accumulate in the fish.

There is a lot of misinformation put out by groups that oppose aquaculture. Some of it is valid, but a lot of it doesn't make sense. For example, they like to bring up the fact that it takes 3 lb of forage fish to produce 1 lb of farmed salmon. OK, but how many pounds of forage fish do they think it takes to produce 1 lb of wild salmon that have to swim thousands of miles to feed and spawn in the natural environment? The answer is not known. But you can be sure that it is at least an order of magnitude greater than it take to feed confined farmed fish.

The fish oil contamination problem could be easily solved by international agreements on the allowable level of toxins in fish meal and fish oil. The FDA regulates fish oil supplements for human consumption, but not fish food.

Plant or single cell substitutes for marine fish oils are being developed and tested now. Once the aquaculture industry gets around the requirement for forage fish to feed farmed marine species, the ocean and our fisheries would benefit greatly from fish farming.

Aquaculture already provides over 50% of the seafood that we eat. Like just about anything else that people do, there is going to be some environmental damage. But if it's done smart, the impact can be less than that of commercial fishing.

If anyone wants to read some science on this topic, here is a pretty good review:

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/36/15103.full.pdf+html
end quote

__________________

Bill -- excellent info, on many aspects. Thanks.

I will take a look at these when I get a chance to. On the note of type of food you feed your fish in your pond you plan to eat. Would you say it is better (safer) to use. Purina Catfish Food, Game Fish Chow, Aquamax, Cargill, etc.

I have been feeding my fish for the last few years wanting to achieve a nice size BG or other fish. Many of my fish are taken for the table though rather than thrown on the bank. Is it safe for me to eat these are should they rely on eating forage fish instead of this food.

Thanks

The standard fish foods produced in the US are typically made from quality items. I would say that fish raised on fish pellets are as good of meat as any of the other farm raised meats such as chicken, turkey, beef, and pork.

I know I'll lose my Mississippi native card for saying this but I prefer the taste of these asian catfish to channel cats. Bumping this old post from 8 years ago to see if anyone knows of any US farms raising these. I really don't like eating fish raised in Asia if I can help it. I wish I could put some in my pond.

Your Asian catfish call Swai are a very good mild tasting fish. Here is a little history of Swai from a restaurant manager of Beef O' Brady in Florida. Years ago Swai was sold undetected by customers as the excellent tasting, expensive grouper in some Florida restaurants. Grouper market and fishermen protested to the FL State government and USDA or whoever is in charge of commercial fish sales in FL. Law determined and ruled in favor of the Grouper sales market. Then the Swai was rebranded as "Farm Raised Grouper". All I know is the Swai is very mild and good tasting fish. Captain D's restaurant chain also sells Swai which they often call white fish. .I have eaten Swai a lot of times and have never had a off flavored fillet. It is especially tasty when served blackened at Beef O' Brady's.

I believe the US catfish farmers had a similar judgement in their favor to where it can't be marketed as catfish.

The stuff is CHEAP. It's $3 or less a pound from Walmart. I just throw it in meal and fry it in an iron skillet. I usually eat it at least once a week.

I am generally able to catch the limited fish I eat. Meals every couple weeks through the warm months. But when I supplement with farm raised meat I like to buy US raised Channel Catfish. I try to avoid any food sourced to China. For me its a matter of food security. I feel more confident in US sourced farm raised fish meeting the integrity I expect of food.

In 2008, when my son was born, a scandal broke out over China sourced baby formula poisined with melamine to fool protein tests. It prompted my wife to breast feed all my children. For as long as I live, I will not get over it. I just can't understand how anyone could do such a thing to persons as innocent and defenseless as babies. If I know food came from China, it stays on the shelf. I don't go out to eat fish either. It's hard for restaurants to resist the cheap imports. It's a reasonable question to ask, how is it that foreign fish is so cheap even after making a big trip across the Pacific? Heck, some of it even makes the trip twice, once for processing and once for delivery. Doesn't make sense that our farmers struggle given the transportation bar that foreign fish must hurdle. Anyways, I figure its good to eat but I'll stick with CC from the good ole USA and pay the difference.

Ditto. If it's not US sourced fish/shellfish it doesn't get bought. I'd say 99.9% of my fish are personally caught/cleaned.