Throw all the gold into the pond
Mr. Tran Van Dung (38 years old, residing in Hoa Phu commune, Hoa Vang district, Da Nang) graduated from the College of Medicine and Pharmacy (now Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy), then worked as a nurse at Da Nang Dermatology Hospital.
A few years ago, Mr. Dung noticed that the golden apple snail was causing serious damage to crops, while the traditional black apple snail was decreasing in number.
"Why don't we try raising this specialty?", Mr. Dung asked and began to learn about how to raise this aquatic species.
Mr. Tran Van Dung is the owner of a black apple snail farm in Da Nang (Photo: Hoai Son).
In 2019, he decided to quit his medical job, return home, borrow money, and build a snail farm. In the early days, he traveled everywhere to learn more about snail farming techniques in tarpaulin-lined tanks. He earned tens of millions of dong in profit from the first batch he sold.
Too "greedy", so in the next batch of stocking, he decided to raise more. But then that "greedy" made him suffer bitter consequences when snails died en masse, because the snail density in the pond was too high.
After that failure, he did not give up but instead researched the model of raising snails in natural earthen ponds.
Male nurse quits job to return to his hometown to dig ponds to raise "black gold" (Video: Hoai Son).
Mr. Dung rented 3 earthen ponds more than 4km from his house, spending a lot of gold (about more than 100 million VND) to invest in establishing a new ecosystem. He dredged the old pond, added minerals, then added water to treat it and raised moss to help filter the water, adding food sources for snails.
He also dives to collect duckweed, grows water lilies, and builds trellises to grow squash to create natural shelter and proactively provide food sources for snails. He releases 180,000 juveniles into each pond, and because it is far away, he also installs cameras to monitor everywhere and at all times.
Mr. Dung has 1 private farm and 4 associated black apple snail farms (Photo: Hoai Son).
At first, some people who didn't understand criticized him for doing something "unreasonable", quitting his job and spending a large amount of money to raise snails. However, after 3 months, the snails grew up and were sold for a high profit, everyone was amazed and fascinated by the big, round, fat ones.
For nearly a year, Mr. Dung's ponds have been stable, on average every 3 months, he sells tons of snails, earning hundreds of millions of dong. This money is reinvested in the ponds, with plans to expand the scale to 1 hectare.
The sun smiles brightly, the rain is worrying.
After chatting for a while, the sunburned man walked around the pond, occasionally picking up a few snails clinging to the duckweed roots to check. "If there is a problem with the snails, we must deal with it immediately. If we let it affect the whole pond, we cannot save it," Dung explained.
Black apple snails grow for about 3 months before they can be sold (Photo: Hoai Son).
According to Mr. Dung, to successfully raise this snail species, the breeder must have an eye for "water" to control the pH level, as well as see if the water source is polluted or not.
Mr. Dung takes advantage of the water source from the canals and irrigation ditches flowing from Dong Xanh and Dong Nghe lakes in Hoa Vang district, so he has to keep an eye out for water to enter the lake when farmers spray pesticides on the rice. If he is careless for even one minute, he will lose everything.
"Snail farmers are worried and restless when they see heavy rain," Mr. Dung confided, adding that after the historic rain in October 2022 in Da Nang, the water overflowed the banks, 2/3 of the snails in his pond crawled out, the rest died due to the sudden change in pH in the water environment.
Mr. Dung made a trellis of squash to create a natural roof and proactively provide food for snails (Photo: Hoai Son).
Mr. Dung said that raising black apple snails in canvas tanks is profitable but very low because of the high cost, while raising them in earthen ponds is easier, the growth cycle is about 3 months before selling. If you want to keep them as breeds, you should raise them for another 2-3 months until they reach a large size.
Snail food is easy to find in the natural environment such as duckweed, water fern, green vegetables, cassava leaves, water hyacinth, guava, squash... Snails are usually fed once a day to avoid excess food polluting the water. With 180,000 current snails, Mr. Dung spends more than 50kg of food every day.
"Snail farming is easy but not leisurely," Mr. Dung confided, explaining that to have delicious snails, one must take meticulous care of them from the pond. And importantly, one must be self-sufficient in good, clean food sources so that the harvested snails will be of good quality.
The black apple snail is very fertile, laying from 70 to 150 eggs at a time (Photo: Hoai Son).
With a stable black snail farming model, Mr. Dung is always a "business partner" with traders in and outside the locality. He sells snails for 70,000-80,000 VND/kg. He also sells eggs and seeds to other farmers.
In the long term, Mr. Dung hopes to build his own clean snail brand, including clean black apple snails, snail sausages and smoked snails. With these products, he hopes to connect to clean food supply chains locally and regionally.
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