This article is about the most profitable fish pond management practices for farmers and agro-entrepreneurs. Just like every other animal, there is a survival phenomenon going on. Ensuring the availability of fish and accounting for each fish is very important in fish pond management. Without the proper management or maintenance of the fishes in a pond, the big ones can swallow the small ones. Therefore losing fish could make you more money later on.

Important Fish Pond Management

Below are the management practices you need to follow to ensure optimum yield from your farm.

1. Regular Feeding

For the sake of growth, development and maturity of the fish, regular and adequate feeding is very important. You have to feed your fish at least 2 times a day. Check out for the feed requirement of the fish, number of kg required and other important factors relating to feeding your kind of fish. So, the feed supplements of fingerlings will be different from that of catfish. Also, look out for specific feed that speeds up the growth and maturity of fishes.

2. Weeding

In fish pond management practices, there is a likeness for aquatic plants. These aquatic plants should be removed from the pond. Only the fish food (planktons) should be left. Fishes require oxygen to grow, so you have to ensure adequate oxygen is available in the pond. One of the reasons for militating against adequate and effective oxygen in the pond is weeds and plants growing in the pond. Also, it allows for the circulation of light to the bottom of the pond. Such that you can easily see everything going on at the bottom of the pond instead of the normal irregularities.

3. Desilting as a major fish pond management practice

Desilting is the removal of silt from the pond. Also, it can mean the prevention of silt from getting into the pond. Clean water is needed in the pond to observe all the actions of the fish. If there is silt in the pond, it is more unless weeds or plants grow in the pond. This silt is even worse than it does not allow you to see anything going on in the pond

You have to note that these silts matter as well and they occupy space. For this fact, they would not allow your fishes to move freely in the pond. The space they already covered can’t be passed through unless you remove them. Even the space in the pond becomes smaller once the silt is settling down and occupying the limited spaces of the pond.

evan mcdougall DpI3yVVeJyA unsplash — Photo Credit: Evan McDougall

4. Aeration

The water in a pond must be rich in oxygen so that the respiratory process is enhanced. Just like how the shortage of oxygen can result in health problems for man, it can also result in health problems for these animals as well. So you need to enable effective circulation of oxygen air to pass through the ponds. One of the hints you should look out for is the fact that rushes come to the surface of the water when oxygen is inadequate in the pond. Anytime you notice the fishes in your ponds doing this, check out for silts and weeds. Or you can even follow the next step that we will be explaining below.

5. Constant Supply of water as an important Fish Pond Management practice

The pond should be filled with water all the time. When changing the water, make sure you are replacing the dirty, old, pond water with perfectly clean water immediately. Do kit wait for money because they are going to die if you are not fast enough. If there is any leakage where wategetawayyr infection can contaminate the water, you have to repair that as soon as possible.

6. Control of predators in fish pond management

If you have done everything stated above, then every other is a mere fact that you can easily walk around with except one which is the control of predators. You don’t want to spend a lot of money and time developing a pond and then losing the fish to another as well. So, you should prevent snakes, birds, cats and any other dish predators to get near the ponds. Once you have your pond, they are going to be near but you are never going to see that. This animal can eat up every fish in your pond, escape from the pond and destabilize your plans for the pond.

7. Prevention of diseases

Infections are powerful factors that can destroy agricultural produce. The feeds of animals are agents of diseases for plants and this area areresupposare supposedly checked. Avoid giving way to your Fish being attacked by insects or disease-causing organisms. This is a preventive measure because there is a big risk in introducing a fish that has been contaminated into a pond of healthy fish that can cause others to control that invention. Hence, causing a lot of extensive damages.

Let’s just say proper sanitation, adequate feeding, stocking, checking fishes, clean waters, weeding, desilting and many other measures can help to prevent diseases.

8. Regular harvesting

In six months, new fishes should be matured enough for harvesting. By this time, you should be wrapping up some fish and getting ready to sell them. Not doing this can result in another part of risking your fish. Some of these fishes might have given birth while some will be added to the point by the farmer. It will get to a stage where the competition will begin between these animals and there is no other way than withdrawing some and make your money from them. If you are not doing this, the effect might be cannibalism and the death of smaller fishes while the larger stays there.

9. Regular application of fertilizer

As much as fishes still feed on planktons, you have to apply fertilisers that will boost the growth of these plants. This does not mean that you should not remove unwanted plants from the pond as they will compete with the plankton. Just a one-time application of the appropriate fertiliser to the pond is enough to maintain Planktons in the fish pond.