Water Quality In Aquaculture

6.0. WATER QUALITY Water quality management is an important aspect in aquaculture. Maintaining good water quality in production ponds and tanks is absolutely essential. Good water must be available in the right quantity. Failure to do so will result at best, in poor growth and high feed conversions, or at worst in a total loss of all fish in the pond. Water quality variables should be monitored daily in aquaculture facilities. For proper growth and development of the cultured fish, good water quality has to be maintained. The first step in achieving this is to monitor the pond on a daily basis. The activity of the fish in the water as well as the various parameters of the water should be monitored. These will serve as guides in the appropriate

It is expresses mathematically as: pH = log 1/ (H+). Where (H+) is the amount of hydrogen ions in a solution in moles per liter. The pH concept allows hydrogen ion concentration to be expressed as a number between 0 and 14. Hydrogen ion causes acidity and pH expresses the degree of acidity. Water with pH below 7 are acidic, those with pH above 7 are alkaline. The most suitable pH of water for aquaculture falls between 6.5 and 9.0.The acid and alkaline death points are approximately pH 4 and 11. Effects of low pH on fish and other biota include: Poor appetite and poor growth rates. Fishes become prone to disease outbreak and parasite infestation. Maintaining internal ion balance is a major problem aquatic organisms face in low pH environment. Increased mucus production and gill damage at low pH affects respiration efficiency in aquatic organisms. Low pH in aquaculture systems can be controlled by lime application of the pond bottom. Liming establishes a strong buffer system and stimulates release of nutrients through microbial decomposition. The most common liming materials are agricultural limestone CaCo3, hydrated lime Ca(OH)2 and quick lime

Nutrition is the process by which an animal obtains its essential body requirement such as protein, carbohydrate, lipids, vitamins and minerals for body metabolism and growth. Nutrition plays a critical role in intensive aquaculture production because it influences not only production costs but also fast growth rates and good health of fish produced. In Nigeria fish nutrition has advanced tremendously with the importation and manufacture of nutritive balanced artificial fish feeds that promotes good growth. To develop cost-effective and nutritious diets the specie’s nutritional requirements must be known. Research over the last two decades has expanded our knowledge of the nutritional requirements of cultured