Pangasius: Its Time Has Come!

Many people may still be unfamiliar with the fish called Pangasius. However, chances are, if you are fond of ordering fish fillet in restaurants, you must have tasted the fish. This is because according to a local trader, the Philippines imports from Vietnam some 15 containers containing 14 tons each of Pangasius fish fillet every month. These are distributed mostly to restaurants. Some restaurants list the fish in their menu as “Basa” or “Pangasius fish fillet” while some simply call it “fish fillet” and when asked what fish it is, the waiters usually say, “perhaps it’s lapu-lapu”.


Pangasius is a freshwater catfish indigenous to the Mekong Delta (Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). The fish has been cultured since ancient times in ponds and in cages in Thailand where it is considered an important species. Fry and fingerlings for stocking came from the wild until the advent of induced spawning technology of the species in 1968. However, it was only in 1974 where commercial production of the fingerlings began.

To date, the fish is the biggest export of Vietnam to 40 countries including the US and Europe in the form of fillet. In 2005, Vietnam exported 89,300 MT of Pangasius fillet to 40 countries generating an income of USD 212.3 million. For this year, Vietnam is projecting an income of USD 1.5B. The main competitive edge of Pangasius in the world market is its price. Its fillet costs only about USD 2.20/kg while Tilapia, its close competitor costs USD 3.50/kg.

The Pangasius has been introduced in the Philippines as an aquarium fish. It is commonly known as the striped catfish, iridescent shark and siamese shark in the US and hammerhead shark in the Philippines. In an effort to produce export volumes of aquarium fishes, the author began exploring the possibility of producing fingerlings not only of Pangasius but other species as well that are not known to breed naturally and are usually imported from other countries. Trials on the mass propagation of Pangasius started in 1989 by the author at the Pila Tropical Fish Breeders, Inc. fish farm in Pila, Laguna. In 1994, after several trials, the techniques for its induce spawning and larval rearing have been standardized and developed under Philippine conditions.

Aware that Pangasius is also a food fish, the excess fingerlings that were produced were grown to marketable size in a 1000 m2 pond at Pila, Laguna. The grow-out trial resulted to a harvest of almost 10 tons of fish after 6 months of culture. The harvested fish were sold to the neighboring towns of Pila, Laguna, while some found its way to the subdivisions in Metro Manila. The consumers who have tasted the fish kept coming back and they have become steady Pangasius buyers.

Encouraged by these results, grow-out culture on a bigger scale were done in fish pens in Laguna Lake, and in a 1 ha pond in Mariveles, Bataan. The same favorable harvests were attained. However, when tons of fish have been marketed in the fish ports of Navotas and Bocaue, the price was only P25./kg. This is because Pangasius at that time was still unknown to the Filipino consumers. Discouraged by this experience, the grow-out culture was stopped but the production of fingerlings for the aquarium trade continues to this day.

Very recently, the importation of Pangasius fish fillet and the export data of Vietnam on this fish have opened the eyes of local fish farmers on the possibility of culturing the fish in their existing facilities. This perhaps was brought about by the low cost of harvested tilapia and the low recovery rates of milkfish particularly in areas with poor water quality.

Pangasius is highly tolerant to poor water quality environments. It can utilize atmospheric air that is why it can grow normally even at a very low dissolved oxygen level of 0.1 ppm in the water. These attributes enable this fish to be stocked to as high as 80 pieces per cubic meter in cages in Vietnam. It is a fast grower. Given the optimum culture conditions, it can grow from a 1-inch fingerling (ca. 1.0g) to approximately 1.0 kg in 6 months and 3-4 kilos in 2 years. They feed on almost all types of feeds including homemade feeds and commercial pellet. They can be cultured in almost all forms of facilities such as ponds, tanks, cages and pens.

This article was published in Agriculture Magazine, December 2007 Issue