In 2017, after the wedding, Ms. Le Thi Minh Thu (27 years old, residing in Vinh Thanh commune, Lap Vo, Dong Thap) was given a gold tree by her mother-in-law. Thinking that if the capital was not used, it would be wasted, Ms. Thu discussed with her husband to sell gold to get money to buy snakes and fish to raise.
“I sold gold for 30 million VND to buy 300 snakes to release into the old water tank. Every week, my husband catches trash fish in the river to make food for snakes, so it doesn’t cost much.” Ms. Thu said that in the first 2 years of raising, she did not sell baby snakes to increase the herd. Every year I sell about 10,000 snake breeds for 45-80 thousand VND/head. Snake meat costs 450,000 VND/kg and I sell 1-2 tons per year. Subtracting the cost of the snake tank each year, the profit is over 800 million VND,” Ms. Thu said.
She said the fish snake is easy to raise at no cost and has few diseases. The tank only needs to be built 1 to 5 meters high so that the snakes don’t climb out, leave about 20cm of water and add water hyacinths for the snakes to live in. The tank is divided into cells to place snakes according to size and the appropriate amount of food.
Snakes eat once a week. Each time the parent snakes eat a tilapia the size of 4 fingers, the baby snakes eat smaller fish. The water in the tank is changed once a week.
Snakes that are only 3 months old can be sold, but the longer they are kept, the higher their value. After giving birth, parent snakes can be sold for meat or kept as breeders because the older the snake is, the more babies it gives. Every year, snakes give birth to a litter of about 50 babies each.
“Previously, my family used to raise chickens, turtles, elephant snakes… but I find it easier and more effective to raise fish snakes. ” Ms. Thu said.
Sharing about the market output, Ms. Thu affirmed that “there has never been a shortage of breeding snakes or meat snakes, there are always customers pre-ordering”.
Currently, Ms. Thu has 2 facilities raising over 2,000 parent snakes of 1-2kg each. Because the number of snakes is increasing, her daily job is to find new customers and instruct customers on how to raise snakes effectively.
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