Culture fisheries in village ponds: a multi-location study in Haryana, India

Abstract

The state of Haryana in northeastern India has an excellent subtropical climate for the development of fresh water fish culture in a variety of aquatic bodies. Aquaculture not only plays an important role in nutrition but also in the rural economy of the State. The main purpose of the present study was to identify the primary production and fish production patterns in village ponds under different management practices. With a more or less narrow range of primary production, varying fish production and growth rates were recorded, indicating the influence of a combination of environmental and management factors. There was no close relation between primary production and fish production in the rural fish ponds of Haryana, India. Sudden and considerable fluctuations in dissolved oxygen concentration and pH impair the proper functioning of other trophic communities, supported the dominance of decomposition processes, i.e., anaerobiosis, and lead to further degradation and loss of the control functions of the whole water ecosystem. Increased organic load can be considered as a general signal of reaching the instability of aquatic ecosystem and decrease of production efficiency The optimum conditions for increased fish productivity were found to be the adequate DO level (>4 mg L-1) and appropriate pH (6 < pH < 9), low BOD (<1.6 mg L-1) and ammonia (<0.2 mg L-1) and optimum plankton population (approximately 3000-4500 Nos. L-1).