July 1st.
Jiang Miao hired two more salespeople, one purchasing agent, one legal counsel, two managers, one food engineer, one truck driver, and one IT administrator.
The legal counsel was hired to refine the company’s rules, regulations, and contracts, and would also handle human resources.
Of the two managers, one was responsible for the eel cannery, and the other for the company’s online store.
All departnts were now operating in an orderly fashion.
anwhile, after more than a week of testing, the indoor aquaculture equipnt at the farm had passed its initial inspection and was finally ready for use.
Jiang Miao personally led a team to transport the 150 eels from his ho to the farm.
Inside the farm’s indoor aquaculture area.
He watched as the eels were placed into the tanks one by one.
Jiang Miao began working with his brother-in-law to adjust the temperature and salinity of the tank water, setting them to levels similar to those near the Mariana Trench.
Fifty eels were placed in each tank.
It would take about half a month for them to undergo their sex change, so during this period, their nutrition needed to be enhanced. This required a special feed mixture with added nutrients to accelerate the process.
Jiang Miao personally supervised the work of mixing the feed and adding the nutrients.
For the next half a month, he remained at the farm.
anwhile, Wang Feng and Ke Yong had escorted the small-scale cannery production line and its supporting equipnt back to Magong.
His cousin had prepared the site for the eel cannery and was now installing the second-hand production line.
July 18th.
As soon as Jiang Miao woke up, he went to check on the eel tanks.
[...Phenotypically female, has reached reproductive stage. Requires stimulation from male fish to promote estrogen production.]
He inspected all 150 eels and found that one-third of them had beco female.
Three days later, all 150 eels had turned into females.
Jiang Miao adjusted the feed and nutrients again, while also introducing 60 male eels into the tanks to be raised with the females.
In less than ten days, the first female began to lay eggs.
The remaining females then followed, laying their eggs one after another.
After spawning, the female eels were on the brink of death, so they all had to be collected and slaughtered.
For the next few days, the company cafeteria served eel every day, and over a hundred more were frozen in the refrigerator.
Jiang Miao also took the opportunity to ask his mom and Aunt Li to experint with different ways of cooking eel, intending to use their results as flavor references for the upcoming canned eel products.
However, Jiang Miao and the others stayed in the indoor aquaculture area of the farm. No one dared to leave, because the three tanks were now filled with eel eggs—all of them fertilized.
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
His brother-in-law shouted, "Ah Miao, look! Are those glass eels?"
Jiang Miao rushed to the tank. Sure enough, countless tiny, translucent fish were swimming inside.
"Quick, get soone over here to collect them! Move the hatched fry to the primary tank."
"Right!" His brother-in-law was ecstatic.
Soon, the eel fry from the three tanks were collected and moved into the primary tank.
However, since the remaining eggs were still hatching continuously, Zhang Xincheng assigned two employees to watch the hatching tanks. They were to collect the newly hatched glass eels every hour and transfer them to the primary tank.
Jiang Miao, anwhile, prepared the imitation "Hai Xue" feed, which was crucial for the glass eels’ survival rate.
In less than five days, over 95% of the approximately 240,000 eel eggs at the bottom of the hatching tanks had hatched.
If he were to sell these 210,000 glass eels now, they would be worth around 600,000 yuan.
But this was the first batch of fry, and Jiang Miao was in no hurry.
anwhile, his brother-in-law and his father watched the swarms of glass eels in the primary tank, their faces breaking into fond, proud smiles.
Zhang Xincheng was so excited he was practically beside himself. "Ah Miao, you’re amazing! The artificial eel breeding technique actually worked! What’s next?"
"Don’t rush. The next step is to cultivate the 70,000 eels in the outdoor ponds in batches. This will ensure a continuous supply of eel fry."
Zhang Xincheng nodded. "I’ve already arranged for ponds 1 through 5 to be fed according to the formula you gave . It’s been almost two months now. They should be ready for breeding, right?"
Jiang Miao nodded. "Mhm, start moving them into the indoor breeding tanks."
Suddenly, Zhang Xincheng thought of sothing. "Ah Miao, I’m worried we’re going to be short-staffed. Should we hire a few more people?"
"Hire five more."
"Okay." Zhang Xincheng nodded.
「In the blink of an eye, it was September.」
The second batch of 5,000 female eels also successfully spawned and their eggs hatched, producing roughly 7.6 million glass eels.
At the sa ti, all the post-spawning female eels were sent to the cannery to be made into canned eel.
The third batch of female eels followed the sa routine.
A newly purchased batch of 5,000 mature white eels was also released into outdoor ponds 1 through 5.
The farm and the cannery gradually entered a cycle of continuous production.
anwhile, his brother-in-law, Li Zhou, and the others began marketing the eel fry to surrounding eel farms.
Li Zhou, in particular, leveraged the connections he’d made while purchasing mature eels to pitch the fry to those sa farms.
Zhe Lang Town, Hailufeng.
Li Zhou and a new salesman, Huang Jiahao, drove the company’s recently purchased pickup truck to the main gate of a farm.
After getting out of the truck, Li Zhou pounded on the large tal gate.
"Old Zhao, you in?"
"Who is it?"
"It’s , Xiaoli. I ca to buy eels from you before."
The tal gate creaked open, and a heavy-set, dark-skinned, middle-aged man poked his head out. "Huh? Isn’t it Xiaoli? Here to buy more eels? You’re too late. Soone’s already claid my latest batch of white eels."
Li Zhou waved his hand dismissively and then asked in a low voice, "Old Zhao, need any eel fry?"
"Eel fry? You’ve got a source?" Old Zhao’s interest was imdiately piqued.
"Of course. Glass eels, 28,000 a kilogram. Interested?"
"That cheap?" Old Zhao was skeptical. After all, the current market price for imported glass eels was around 31,000 per kilogram.
Li Zhou opened the bed of the pickup truck, revealing a modified temporary water tank. "Old Zhao, check out the goods."
Old Zhao quickly grabbed a small hand net and carefully scooped so out. They were indeed glass eels, and they weren’t small, either—each one was about 0.1 grams, and they were quite lively.
Suddenly, Old Zhao’s brow furrowed. "Xiaoli, it’s not that I don’t want them, but glass eels are hard to raise. I usually buy leptocephali from specialized companies."
Li Zhou had anticipated this. He smiled and took out a printed guide on raising glass eels. "Old Zhao, this guide is for you, free of charge. And you can purchase the specialized feed directly from our company."
"For real?"
"Old Zhao, my company is right over in Magong. If you have any problems, you can co find us."
Hearing this, Old Zhao couldn’t help but feel tempted. He quickly asked, "Really 28,000 a kilogram? And the guide for raising them is free?"
"Why would I lie to you? If you need anything in the future, just call my company’s number."
Old Zhao took the business card and glanced at it. ’Hailufeng Agricultural Technology Company? The one in Magong?’ He put the card away and held up five fingers.
"Give five kilograms of fry, plus two hundred kilograms of the glass eel feed."
Both sides prepared buckets and an electronic scale. After taring the scale, Li Zhou and Huang Jiahao scooped out 5.2 kilograms of glass eels from the tank for him.
"Thanks. I’ve transferred the 140,000."
Li Zhou checked the company’s finance group chat. Ye ijing had sent a screenshot confirming receipt of the paynt. He smiled and said, "Alright, I’m heading to the other farms now. I’ll treat you to a al when I have ti."
"No problem."
Using the connections from their previous eel purchases, plus so contacts provided by Jiang Miao’s brother-in-law, Li Zhou and Huang Jiahao sold over two million glass eels and nine tons of specialized glass eel feed in less than a week.
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