Rainy Season Precautions During Aqua Farming

As the rainy season makes its presence across the country, it brings along with it plentiful rain and moisture. While this season may be the best for one, it may not be the same for any livestock farmer. Especially when it comes to livestock farmers in India. While livestock farming has become a popular practice in the country, taking the best care of them ensures better and brighter returns in your business.

While the other livestock sectors are increasing at a rapid pace, aquaculture farming has maintained superiority across all sections. Here’s why. India is the second largest producer of fish in the world. And 68% of the total fish comes from our aquaculture sector. This brings livelihood to a large number of livestock farmers from small and developing communities.

Keeping this in mind, ensuring efficient aquaculture farming  at all times is important. Especially during the monsoons. With constant rain comes a list of unprecedented problems that block a smooth farming process. While flooding and hygiene conditions crop up during the monsoons, taking preventive measures eliminates every hurdle coming your way.

However, before we dig much deeper, understanding the problems that fish/shrimp ponds face during the monsoons is essential. Hence, here’s a list of problems faced during the rains.

Problems Faced by Fish/Shrimp Ponds During the Rains

We do understand that facing problems that block a smooth and functional aquafarm can be disturbing. These problems slow down the efficiency of aqua fish farming. Hence being aware of the list of problems can help resolve the same during its early stages. Here’s a list of problems faced by aquafarms during the monsoon.

• Showcasing a sudden drop in water temperatures, oxygen, PH, alkalinity and salinity. This causes an increase in mortality rate due to changes in water quality, stress and pathogens. Also a 1°C drop in temperature reduces the shrimp’s feed intake by 5-10%. On the other hand a drop of 3°C can cause feed uptake to drop as much as 30%.

Once the water temperatures rise again on a non-rainy day, there would be a massive bacterial bloom due to a rise in organic material for the microorganisms to feed on. This ultimately leads to a rise in oxygen usage due to a degradation of organic material because of a low oxygen situation.

• Constant phytoplankton crashes occur during this season. This is mainly caused due to the lack of CO2 in the water. Due to lesser phytoplankton in the water, we witness a drop in dissolved oxygen count ultimately hampering the fish/shrimps.

• Organic material tends to accumulate on the pond bottoms more often. This lowers the oxygen levels leading to a foul odor released from ponds.

• Strong winds tend to stir up the bottom sludge. This causes the bottom condition of the pond to deteriorate due to the sludge being stirred up.

• There are increased toxic levels of Hydrogen Sulfide released. This tampers with fish/shrimp's optimal oxygen transfer process leading to a list of difficulties affecting optimal health.

• This weather causes pathogenic bacteria to replace beneficial bacteria causing a fluctuation in their health cycle.

• This pointer is quite common yet disruptive. The rains bring along with it unsettling rain pounding noises. This does stress the fish and shrimps in the pond causing them to settle to the water bed where the temperatures are warmer and sludge levels are higher.

• These pointers relate to shrimps on a larger scale. Due to the monsoons, shrimps molt due to lower lower PH and phytoplankton changes. This causes soft shells to develop  on a much larger scale due to a mineral level drop.

Since these problems are not small, understanding the right solutions to the same is necessary. While premium quality shrimp feed boosts their health, decoding certain actions that need to be done is vital.

Actions for Optimal Aquaculture Farming
 

Here’s a list of specific actions that assist with promoting healthy aquaculture farming.

• Turning all aerators during the rain increases the air-water area by renewing the surface water and shifting oxygenated water away.

• Keeping oxygen levels 20% higher than normal helps shrimps and fish breathe and live well.

• Ensure all excess rainwater surfaces off the pond.

• Every livestock farmer should check the PH levels constantly. Incase of any fall in ph levels, adding lime to the top of the banks is beneficial.

• Choosing quality shrimp feed and fish feed is favorable. However, one must practice reducing the feed or prevent feeding during rains.

• For better guaranteed results, one must add vitamin C, salt, and potassium to the feed.

Nouriture- Assisting you Promote Healthy Aquaculture
 

Since the monsoons cause an increase in problems faced by livestock farmers and fish/shrimps, understanding actions to multiple problems helps resolve multiple roadblocks. This is where Nouriture Technical Service plays its role. With a team of professionals, offering noteworthy advice to aquafarms nearby helps keep the farmers aware and alert.

If you are also looking to understand and resolve any query with respect to monsoon-related aquaculture, contact Nouriture Technical Services and resolve any query in just a call.