Fish Pond Construction and Management

INTRODUCTION

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing sectors in Agriculture and fish is among the most traded food commodities world-wide accounting for 17 per cent of global intake of animal protein (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2014).  Fish is an aquatic and a source of high-quality animal protein that could be harvested from capture or culture fishery (Olele et al., 2008). Fisheries expert needs a medium where they can culture fish in a confined and controlled environment, this can be referred to as culture facilities. Examples of culture facilities include ponds and others; like plastic vat, concrete tank, glass tank, tarpaulin tanks, fibreglass tanks amongst others. A fish pond is an earthen facility or vessel designed to hold/impound water for the purpose of rearing fish. It is the most natural and ideal facility for fish culture. According to Agbon et al. (2011) a pond is a water enclosure or a confined body of water where fishes are raised or reared under a manageable controlled condition. The pond so far is the commonest and most popular facility used for fish farming globally (FAO, 2014) and it is as old as fish farming itself. In Nigeria, fish pond has become a common house-hold word in most families both in urban and rural communities and pond fish farming has turned into a “gold mine” for many families and communities nationwide (Madu, 2008). Pond construction is the process of putting into place the necessary fitting to have a functional pond. Culture facilities can be constructed with different materials like cements and blocks, polyethylene, polyvinyl, acrylics amongst others. Earthen pond is the most ideal facility for fish culture. Concrete tank culture of Clarias gariepinus is one of the commonest outdoor fish culture system (Akinwole and Faturoti, 2007; Ude et al., 2015). Pond management on the other hand, is the application of the appropriate management practice in fish culture to achieve the production of maximum weight of fish from a given water body within the shortest possible time, it includes all management practices applied to fish pond in order to increase the yield per unit areas of the pond (Regan, 2009). These practices  includes: liming, fertilization, stocking of fish depending on the management options, feeding with either complete or supplemental diet, administration of drugs to fish, flushing of water (water quality management), harvesting and marketing. The management options can be classified as intensive system, semi-intensive and extensive system of culture. The main purpose of pond management is to have a profitable culture system so as to produce the maximum yield within the shortest period of time. According to Abolagba and Omorodion (2006) funds constraint was identified as the major inhibiting factor directly affecting pond management practices.