Aquaculture and Fish Farming
Aquaculture and Fish Farming
This domain tests how well you can plan and run a fish farm: selecting species, preparing ponds, stocking, feeding, and judging production.
Core rules
- Match species to pond layers: catla is a surface feeder, rohu a column feeder, mrigal and common carp bottom feeders. Composite culture uses this niche separation to use natural food at all depths.
- Pond preparation follows drying, weed removal, liming, manuring, then filling and plankton development before stocking.
- Stock only healthy fingerlings, acclimatise bags to pond temperature, and stock early morning or evening.
- Record stocking density, survival, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and daily growth. FCR = feed given ÷ fish weight gain.
Worked example
A 1 ha pond is stocked with 6,000 fingerlings in a 3:4:3 ratio of catla:rohu:mrigal. Catla = 6,000 × 3/10 = 1,800; rohu = 2,400; mrigal = 1,800. If survival is 80%, expected harvest = 4,800 fish. At an average harvest weight of 500 g, yield = 2,400 kg. If 3,600 kg feed is used, FCR = 3,600 ÷ 2,400 = 1.5. This is a useful check: a lower FCR means more efficient feed use.
Traps
Do not stock before plankton develops; do not confuse intensive monoculture with composite culture; do not exceed the pond's carrying capacity; and do not ignore acclimatisation, which causes temperature shock.