Feeding the Crazy Fishies of Vietnam

A monument/park in Chau Doc with a basa fish statue.

The basa fish is a species of catfish native to the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins in Indochina. They are often labeled in the international market as basa fish or Vietnamese river cobbler.

These fish are important food fish in the Mekong Delta. The local economy of Vietnam mostly rely on the culture of basa fish for export, aside from tourism. The province of An Giang, specifically Chau Doc, is one of the busiest trading center since it is bordering Cambodia.

How the typical houses look like in Vietnam's floating village.

One of the popular tours when in Chau Doc is a visit to its floating town where most household have basa fish farms. We spent around an hour visiting the floating houses and our tour guide showed us how the locals culture basa fish.

As you can see, the fish nurseries are usually placed inside their homes. The basa fish are always super hungry! Our guide threw in a bucket of fish pellets and the fish went crazy! In a matter of seconds, the pellets were gone. Haha! You better check out the video below and see for yourself!

Well here's a bit of revelation. Aside from fish pellets, basa fish are also fed with this mud-like mix of dead fish remnants and bones, dried and ground into a dung-like dough. We'll it's what keeps them fatso, they say. :D

The machine that grinds dead fish to achieve that pudding-like form

Here's the fish food! Good thing you can't smell the photos :))

Here are some more photos taken around the floating village.