Catfish Nutrition, Growth and Production Systems

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the three major themes of catfish nutrition, growth, and production systems, encompassing precision nutrition and feed development, growth regulation and molecular mechanisms, advanced aquaculture systems and models, health–environment interactions, and intelligent technologies and industrial economic analysis. The existing literature has accumulated substantial achievements within individual domains; however, these areas still exhibit considerable independent development with limited cross-directional integration.

In recent years, research across these themes has progressed in several prominent areas. In nutrition, the search for sustainable protein and lipid sources has intensified, with growing interest in insect meals, single-cell proteins, fermented plant proteins, and by-product-based ingredients. Concurrently, functional additives—including phytogenics, probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, and bioactive compounds—are being rigorously evaluated for their roles in improving feed efficiency, gut microbiota composition, and immune resilience. Advances in precision nutrition, supported by near-infrared spectroscopy and machine learning-based prediction models, are enabling more accurate formulation tailored to varying rearing conditions and life stages.

In growth regulation and genetics, high-throughput genomic tools such as genome-wide association studies, genomic selection, and quantitative trait locus mapping are being increasingly applied to dissect the genetic architecture of economically important traits. Multi-omics approaches—integrating transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics—are providing systems-level insights into the regulatory networks governing muscle growth, lipid deposition, and stress tolerance. Moreover, the interplay between genotype and environment is receiving growing attention, particularly in understanding how rearing conditions modulate growth potential at the molecular level.

In production systems, the transition toward resource-efficient and low-discharge farming is accelerating. Recirculating aquaculture systems, biofloc technology, and aquaponic systems are being optimized not only for water quality and waste management but also for their integration with real-time monitoring and automated control. The incorporation of IoT sensors, acoustic feeding loggers, and computer vision is driving the development of intelligent feeding strategies and early warning systems for disease and environmental stress. Life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis are increasingly being employed to compare system performance and guide decision-making toward lower carbon footprints and higher profitability.

This Special Issue both encourages in-depth investigation within a single theme and actively promotes cross-directional exploratory research. It aims to establish an open academic platform for catfish aquaculture science, fostering constructive interactions among fundamental discoveries, technological advances, and production applications, thereby facilitating the industry's upgrade toward efficient, green, and intelligent practices.

Dr. Shiyong Zhang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• catfish
• nutrition
• growth regulation
• production systems
• feed development
• molecular mechanisms
• health–environment interactions
• intelligent aquaculture
• industrial economics