Management of fish ponds built on acid sulfate soils in Buguma creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

An experiment on the use of tidal flushing as a management technique for fishponds constructed in mangrove swamp of the Niger Delta was carried out at the NIOMR/ARAC brackish water fish farm, Buguma, Rivers State, Nigeria. The soils are highly acidic. pH in the wet state ranged between 6.75 and 7.70 but on air-drying, values went down to as low as 3.1. The soil acidifies the overlying pond water rapidly to pH less than 4.0 but upon tidal flushing the acidity was reduced remarkably with pH increasing to 7.1. The experiment revealed the effectiveness of tidal flushing in improving pond water quality and fish yield in brackish water ponds to about 1.25mt/ha/yr.