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Freshwater Fish Pond Culture And Management

1 Introduction

What is Fish Culture? Fish culture is the growing of fish in ponds. Growing fish in ponds, from which they cannot escape, allows feeding, breeding, growing, and harvesting the fish in a well-planned way.

Fish culture is one form of aquaculture. Aquaculture is the science which deals with methods of growing (cultivating) animal and vegetable life in water. Some other kinds of aquaculture are concerned with growing frogs, oysters, seaweed, and even rice.

History of Fish Culture in Ponds

Growing fish in ponds is a very old practice. Carp were cultured as long ago as 2698 B.C. in China, where they were grown in ponds on silkworm farms. Fish culture seemed to occur whenever civilization was settled for a long period of time. For example, fish culture was done in ancient Egypt and in China, which has had a continuous civilization for over 4,000 years. The first written account of fish culture in ponds was by Fan Lai, a Chinese fish farmer, in 475 B.C.

The ancient Romans introduced carp from Asia into Greece and Italy. By the seventeenth century (1600's), carp culture was being done all over Europe. A book written in England in 1600 by John Taverner gives the details of good pond management and talks about growing the common carp. Taverner also wrote about pond construction, fertilization and feeding. Another book, written in 1865, gave the details of the stripping methods of spawning fish. The methods of culturing common carp have not changed very much since that time.

The common carp is still a very important pond fish. In addition, today, other fish also are being cultured in ponds. Some of the most well-known are fish of the tilapia genus, like Tilapia nilotica and Tilapia mossambica. Some of the other Chinese carps -- the silver, grass, and bighead carps -- also are often used in pond culture. Most importantly, countries all over the world are using time and money to discover which of the fish commonly found in their own waters will grow well in fish ponds.

Why Fish are Grown in Ponds

The practice of culturing fish in ponds developed because growing fish in ponds is a more useful practice, for some purposes, than trying to catch fish from lakes, rivers, or streams. For example:

* Many interested people discover that building a fish pond close to home is possible and far more convenient than going to the nearest market or river. Ponds can be built wherever the soil, shape of the land, and water supply are right. This may sound as if a lot of factors are involved. But since a wide variety of soils, land shapes, and water supplies can be used for pond culture, a fish pond can even be made from a rice paddy or an unused grain field.

* It is easier to get fish out of a pond than it is to catch a fish from a river or stream. Also, the number of fish taken out of a pond can be controlled. But it is very difficult to know how many fish can be caught in a river or stream or lake at any one time. When the farmer goes to his fish pond to get dinner, he knows he can take out the number of fish he needs -- quickly and easily.

* Fish growth can be controlled. The fish can be fed extra food to make them better for market; natural enemies can be kept from killing the fish. For a person who relies on fish for his food or his income, these are important factors.

* The only fish grown in a pond are the ones the farmer wants to grow. When he takes a fish out of his pond, the farmer knows what kind or kinds he will be getting. When he catches fish in a lake, stream, or river, many of the fish will not be the ones that are good to eat or to sell.

* Growing fish in ponds allows the farmer, or other fish grower, to produce fish cheaply, and to have a supply of fish available on his own land. Fish in ponds belong to the pond owners; fish in the rivers and lakes do not.

Why Growing Fish is Important

There are some very good reasons why a farmer or small land owner might be interested in fish farming:

* Fish are an important food source.

* Fish farming can help a farmer make the best use of his land.

* Fish farming can provide extra income.

There may be additional reasons; you and the pond owners can determine these from the local situation. The three points listed above are very broad, however, and apply, at least in part, to most situations. Therefore, each point is discussed more fully below.

FISH AS FOOD

Farmers know that all living things need food, and that without food, living things die. However, they are not as likely to know the characteristics of food which make it valuable (or not) to the body.

Food is important because it provides proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and carbohydrates. These things are called nutrients: they are materials that the body must have to live and grow. Every kind of food has different amounts of each of these nutrients. For example, some foods contain more protein; others have more fat than protein.

Because foods contain different amounts of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, for example, it is necessary to eat a number of different kinds of food to get the right amounts of each nutrient. All the foods together then give the body what it needs to grow.

The food that people eat is called their diet. Eating the right kinds of food -- foods that give the body the right amounts of proteins, fats, etc. -- is called eating a balanced diet. People who eat a balanced diet usually are healthy and strong; people who do not eat the right kinds of food are more likely to be weak and get sick.

Proteins are the most important part of food. Protein is made of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These are called elements. The combinations of elements in protein make it the most useful nutrient. Foods that contain a lot of protein are especially good for people to eat. And fish contains a lot of protein.

The table on the opposite page shows a list of foods that humans eat. The first number beside the food shows the number of grams of protein in the food when it is fresh. The second number tells how many grams of protein there are in food which has been dried. The table shows that fish -- whether fresh or dried -- is a very good source of protein. (100gm of dried fish contains more protein than 100gm of fresh fish only because dried foods have water taken out. Therefore, 100gm of fresh fish weighs less when it is dried.)

If the farmers in your area already eat a lot of fish, or like fish, fish farming for food may not be hard to introduce and have accepted. If they do not eat fish often, you will have to keep this in mind when you talk about fish as a healthy food. Food just may not be the most important reason, from their point of view, for wanting to grow fish.

PROTEIN CONTENT OF FOODS (*)

Fresh, gms protein Dried, gms protein

Food per 100gm, per 100gm

FISH

Fatty (herring) 17 46

Non-fatty (haddock) 16 84

MEAT

Beef 20 67 Pork, loin 20 67 Liver 20 67

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Milk 3.4 26 Eggs 12 46

CEREALS

Wheat 12 14 Maize 10 11 Oats 10 11 Rice 8 9

OIL SEEDS

Soya 33 37 Cottonseed 20 21 Sesame 21 22

GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES

Cabbage 1.4 - 3.3 24 Spinach 2.3 - 5.5 26

ROOTS

Cassava (manioc ) 0.7 2 Potatoes 2.1 9 Yams 2.1 7 Plantains 1.0 3

(*) These values are estimates only; the amount of protein varies according to the age, size, and quality of the food, and how it was cooked and stored.

Source: Aylward and Jul (1975)

But there are other reasons you can offer a farmer. For example, a farmer may consider cultivating fish if he realizes that fish are easy to grow, cheaper than some kinds of meat, available as food all year round, etc. You will have to see which combination of arguments works best for getting farmers interested.

BETTER LAND USE

Some farmers may be more interested in fish farming when they realize they can accomplish two purposes: provide a reliable food supply and make the best possible use of their land.

"Fish farming" is a good thing to call "fish culture" because it can start the farmer thinking about raising fish with the same kind of planning and land-use management ideas that he puts into raising crops.

Whether the farmer raises fish, crops, or animals, he is using his land in certain ways. His aim in all cases is to increase the production of food and the yield from the land. What farmers, and other people, often do not realize is that fish culture can help get more out of the land. Here are a few ways in which fish culture can help support and extend a farmer's land use:

* Land gets tired when it is used for growing the same crop year after year. These crops use up nutrients in soil, and they begin to grow poorly. Fish ponds can be built on this land and fertilized to provide food for the fish. After a few years of fertilizing and growing fish, the soil inside the pond regains some of the nutrients used up by the growing of crops year after year. The land can then be used for crops again.

* Some farmers own land that may not be very good for growing crops: it is too sandy, for example. But there are ways of building fish ponds in sandy soil. So the farmer would be able to use land that was once not of much value to him.

* There are many ways that fish farming can fit into the farmer's plan for his land. The important thing is that all of these ways help the farmer make the best use and get more out of what he has -- readily, and often without much expense. For example, a farmer who grows paddy rice can grow fish in that paddy; fish ponds can be built as part of water supply and irrigation systems; vegetable scraps and animal manures can be collected and used for fertilizing ponds. The farmer should know that a farm with a fish pond or ponds can give a total food yield that is higher than a farm with no fish ponds.

The following diagram illustrates some of the ways in which the fish pond fits into the farm: The same water source is used by both the garden and the fish pond; the mud from the bottom of the pond makes good fertilizer for the garden; vegetable matter from the garden can be used to fertilize fish ponds; manure from the animals can be used for the pond and parts of fish can be used to feed animals; etc.

ADDED INCOME

Fish ponds can be quite small, or they can be large. They can be made using expensive equipment and drainage systems, or they can be dug using hand tools and drained by a bamboo pipe. Fish can grow successfully in both of these types of pond, as long as the ponds are managed correctly.

If the major reason for building the fish pond is to get increased and better food for his family, a farmer certainly does not need fancy ponds or expensive equipment. Fish ponds can be very inexpensive to keep. Fish do not require fancy foods. Many ponds provide all the food the fish need. But besides the foods they find in water itself, some fish eat leafy garbage, mill sweepings, beer residues, spoiled grains, broken rice, and many other waste products that might not otherwise be used. A farmer makes his income go further by growing more of the family's food and by selling leftover fish the family cannot eat.

Growing fish to sell can also be very profitable. But the costs involved in getting started and in maintaining the effort are greater: if the farming is to be a solid commercial enterprise, then more ponds, more time, more money, and nearby marketplaces are needed. The business may or may not show a profit right away; in fact, the chances are that it will not. A farmer might be better advised to start small and work into a bigger enterprise slowly as he learns to manage the art of growing fish in ponds.

A Word about Cooperation

Often fish ponds are built by cooperatives. A cooperative is an organization of people in an area who come together to do something they could not or would not do alone. In this way, four or five people or families can pool their resources and build a fish pond operation together. Sometimes an entire village will form a cooperative and will build and operate a pond as a group. This kind of cooperation makes possible better pond construction and management. A fish pond cooperative may be a good way for a village to improve the diet of the community and to sell enough fish to maintain the enterprise. If the farmers in your area are not interested in, or are concerned about, building ponds individually, a cooperative may be a very acceptable idea.

Getting Ready to Plan a Fish Farm

A farmer or other person interested in growing fish should read the following list carefully before going further. The following factors must be considered before the farmer builds his fish pond. Many pond owners have small fish ponds that are only used for their own families, but a farmer who sells fish must look for a market and a way to get his fish to that market. It does no good to harvest fish which cannot be sold or used by the farmer and his family.

* Is the soil able to hold water for a fish pond?

* Is there an adequate supply of water for a pond?

* Is the land a good shape for a fish pond?

* Is the pond area close to your home?

* Who owns the land where the pond will be built?

* Are there enough people to help build and harvest the pond?

* Can the equipment for building a pond be built, borrowed, or bought.

* Is there a marketplace nearby?

* Are there roads from the pond area to a market place?

* Are the roads passable even in the rainy season?

* Is there a good way to get the fish to market?

* Is there a vehicle available for transportation, if necessary?

* If there is no market nearby, or if it is hard to get to the market, can the fish be kept by drying, smoking, or salting?

* Is there enough food for the pond fish?

* Are there fertilizers available?

* Do the people in the area like fish? Do they eat freshwater fish?

* Can the people in the area afford to buy the fish produced in the pond?

If the farmer can answer yes to the questions which most fit his situation, he has a good chance of having a successful fish pond. But he must consider these factors. Each is discussed in detail in the "Planning" sections.

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