A farmer believes that his fish taste better because he feeds them chillies every day.

Aquaculturist Jiang Sheng, 40, and his friend, Kuang Ke, prepared up to five tonnes (5,000 kg) of chilli peppers a day for more than 2,000 fish in Changsha, China.

Footage shows mounds of cone peppers and millet peppers floating into the water while Jiang spreads them out across the 10-acre pond, which is stocked with grass carp and common carp, on November 13.

Kuang claimed that the fish developed better body shapes, more tender meat, and shiny golden scales after eating the peppers.

He said: 'Initially, the fish were hesitant to eat the chillies. But now, when we toss in both grass and chilli, they actually prefer the chilli.

'When we eat spicy food, we drink water, right? Well, they live in water, so even if it's spicy, they just drink more to counteract it. Fish do not have taste buds, so they won't be harmed by eating them.

'Chilli peppers are rich in vitamins, and they make the fish more resistant to stress. Chilli-fed fish produce meat with significantly more flavour than those raised on conventional feed.'

Experts said chilli meal had long been used in aquaculture and that capsaicin could boost appetite and deter parasites, although they noted that scientific evidence on the use of whole chillies directly in ponds remained limited.