In the shallow puddle, the fish could no longer hide; their backs were sticking out as they tried desperately to dive into the water, but there was no water.
Ye Cheng squatted down and pressed down on a large red fish that was still struggling. He picked it up and saw that it was a grouper. This guy had somehow escaped when the net was pulled in earlier, and now he couldn't escape Ye Cheng's clutches. Hahahaha.
A puddle of mud was thrown out of the nearby puddle, and a flat, long body moved. Ye Cheng casually pressed it down and picked it up.
When Ye Cheng saw the approaching general clearly, he gasped in shock. "Holy crap!"
Catfish!
The Chinese sea catfish, also known as the Chinese sea catfish, is a carnivorous bottom-dwelling fish. It has an elongated body, which is broad and flat in the front and laterally compressed in the back; a large and flat head, a large mouth, and three pairs of barbels. It is naked and scaleless with smooth skin, and its tail fin is deeply forked.
The sea catfish has hard spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins, which are slightly toxic. If stung, it will cause intense pain, like being stung by a bee, followed by redness and swelling, and may also cause nausea, dizziness and other symptoms.
Although it's generally not fatal, getting involved with it is never a good thing.
Sea catfish have a unique way of reproducing: the male will hold the fertilized eggs in its mouth to incubate them and protect the fry until they can survive independently, so the survival rate is relatively high.
Sea catfish has tender flesh with few bones, making it suitable for braising, stewing, grilling, or making fish balls. It is also highly nutritious. However, because it has a strong reproductive capacity and can be caught all year round, it is not expensive, costing only ten yuan per kilogram.
"Brother, you're catching a sea catfish with your bare hands? Aren't you afraid of dying?" Xiao Hu said from the side.
Ye Cheng carefully picked up the sea catfish and threw it into the tank before letting out a sigh of relief. "How was I supposed to know? It was so dark, I thought it was a moray eel."
However, this also served as a reminder to Ye Cheng that catching fish with bare hands was indeed risky. He put on gloves, the kind of hard rubber gloves used for working, and then used the net to catch fish, minimizing contact was the safest approach.
"Brother, look, it's a spotted mouse!" Xiao Hu suddenly exclaimed. Ye Cheng turned around and saw that it really was a spotted mouse.
This rat-shaped fish wasn't very big, weighing just over a pound; it was one of the fish that slipped through the net.
"Sure, Little Tiger, keep going! We're counting on you for the drinks and meat."
Ahead was a slightly deeper puddle. Ye Cheng used a net to slide down to the edge. As soon as he went in, a fish jumped out in fright. Without Ye Cheng having to catch it, it went straight to the bank, thrashed around a few times, and then gave up.
Ye Cheng picked it up and saw that it was a fish from the sole of a shoe, weighing over a pound, which was not bad. The main thing was that the child was proactive and eager to get it up on his own without Ye Cheng having to fish it out.
Besides the shoe sole fish, Ye Cheng also fished out several small stone gobies. Luckily, he didn't attack them directly earlier, or he might have been stung again.
Turning his head to find his next target, Ye Cheng noticed that Da Huang had come down at some point and was lying next to a puddle, probing it repeatedly.
"Brother, what did you find?" Ye Cheng walked over.
Big Yellow gestured towards the puddle, and Ye Cheng immediately understood. He scooped up three yellow croakers with his net.
When Ye Cheng first saw the yellow color, he was startled. Could it be a wild yellow croaker?
Wild yellow croaker can fetch an astronomical price; if you could catch three wild yellow croakers, you'd be rich.
However, the three yellow croakers in front of us are not golden yellow, but grayish yellow, with small scales and short, thick tails, so they are obviously not large yellow croakers.
However, small yellow croaker is also good; many people like to eat it, and it only costs around 20 yuan.
"Brother, next time let's get the big kind, you know, big yellow croaker? They're expensive. Remember to call me next time you see one." Ye Cheng squatted down and carefully gestured to Da Huang what a big yellow croaker looked like.
Xiao Hu had just caught a sea eel when he saw Ye Cheng chatting with a sea turtle. He said speechlessly, "Brother, what are you talking to a sea turtle about? It can't understand you. Besides, small yellow croaker and large yellow croaker look almost the same."
"What do you know? Our Big Yellow Croaker is very intelligent, okay? Besides, Big Yellow Croaker is looking for Big Yellow Croaker, isn't that a perfect match?"
"Okay, bro, if you say we'll pair up, then we'll pair up. Bro, we've caught enough fish, time to catch crabs."
The fish with exposed backs were almost all gone, so Ye Cheng started touching them. There were all sorts of things in the puddle, and nobody knew what they were.
Before Ye Cheng could even make a move on the puddle in front of Da Huang, Da Huang jumped in first.
Then...
Ye Cheng saw a tentacle emerge from the water and wrap around Big Yellow's head.
Not to be outdone, Big Yellow pulled its tentacles back and pulled an octopus bigger than a fist out of the water.
The octopus seemed very unhappy with Big Yellow, and after being pulled out, it climbed onto Big Yellow's back.
Ye Cheng chuckled, "Brother, he's a returnee from overseas, do you think you can take advantage of him?"
As he spoke, Ye Cheng plucked the octopus off Da Huang and threw it into the water tank.
Big Yellow looked at Ye Cheng with great dissatisfaction, seemingly unhappy that Ye Cheng had taken its spoils.
Ye Cheng casually scooped up a small, miscellaneous fish from under his feet and handed it to Big Yellow, and this time Big Yellow stopped protesting.
The puddle was a bit deep. Ye Cheng reached down and another fish jumped out. It was a shoe-shaped fish, hiding in the mud with its flat body. There were quite a few fish that had escaped the net.
He continued searching, but there was nothing left inside, so Ye Cheng had to move to another spot—a crevice in the rock, a favorite spot for crabs.
Before I even touched it, I saw something peeking out from inside; its two pincers couldn't be hidden.
Ye Cheng bent down, found a stick, and had the guy clamp it down. Then he pulled it out and pulled out a bread crab.
The bread crab gets its name from its high, rounded carapace, which resembles a steamed bun.
Compared to mud crabs, mud crabs are known for their firm meat, with the meat mainly distributed in the claws and walking legs. The edible portion of a single adult mud crab can reach 40%. Bread crabs have a larger amount of meat, but their edible rate is lower, only 30%, with the crab roe concentrated in the cephalothorax.
Generally speaking, the meat of bread crab is suitable for strong flavors, such as curry crab or spicy crab, while mud crab is mainly steamed.
Therefore, in terms of price, the brown crab is lower than the mud crab.
However, there is one thing that the bread crab can do that rivals the mud crab: its size. The bread crab is much larger than the mud crab.
This bread crab has a shell length of 20 centimeters and looks to weigh about 2 kilograms, which is equivalent to the size of two mud crabs.
Satisfied, Ye Cheng accepted the large bread crab and poked it inside, but there was nothing there.
Just as we were about to leave, Da Huang crawled forward again, indicating that there was still something inside.
Ye Cheng squatted down in confusion and looked into the crack in the rock.
Wow, there really was one, a smaller blue crab, hiding inside a crevice in the rocks.
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