Comprehensive evaluation of aquaculture pond water quality based on
farmed fish health: a case study on grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)
Abstract
To this day, no technical procedures have been established for the
evaluation of aquaculture pond water quality based on the health of the
farmed species themselves. Here, grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella;
i.e., the main farmed fish species in China’s freshwater ponds)
aquaculture was taken as an example to preliminarily study and establish
novel strategies for the assessment of pond water quality. This
manuscript discusses the selection and establishment of an evaluation
index system, including classification of fish health degree,
determination of evaluation benchmarks and presentation of evaluation
results. The scoring formula were performed by Membership Function
method based on fuzzy mathematics and scoring results were demonstrated
by radar chart. This study finally selected a total of 6 indicators for
pond health evaluation: (1) dissolved oxygen concentration, (2)
non-ionic ammonia concentration, (3) pH, (4) nitrite nitrogen
concentration, (5)copper ion concentration, and (6)zinc ion
concentration. Through a case study on a fish pond in Songjiang District
(Shanghai, China), we demonstrated the practicality of the proposed
evaluation system, thus establishing a methodological framework for
grass carp farmers to quickly evaluate the fish health and water
quality, as well as for the future development of evaluation systems for
other cultivated animals.