Excerpt
POND owners in the South and more northern coastal regions where climate is moderated by ocean currents usually find fertilization to be a good investment. Fertilizer nutrients increase production of microscopic plants (phyto-plankton) that serve as food for microscopic animals (zooplankton) and aquatic insects. Plankton and insects, in turn, serve as food for sunfish, and bass prey primarily on sunfish. Channel catfish, which feed on aquatic insects and small fish, are also stocked occasionally with sunfish and bass to provide variety.
Fertilization often increases the production of sportfish by two to five times (20). Fish are also easier to catch in fertilized ponds because turbidity resulting from plankton limits their vision and causes them to be less wary (19). In addition, plankton turbidity reduces light penetration and limits the growth of troublesome aquatic weeds (18). Plankton blooms dense enough to restrict visibility in the water to 12 to 24 inches are usually adequate for good fish production and weed control (5).
Fertilization of ponds in northern states is normally not a good practice. Greater plankton production during warm months leads to accumulation of organic matter. Decomposition of this organic matter during winter can deplete oxygen and cause fish kills …
Footnotes
Claude E. Boyd is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and. Allied Aquacultures, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849. Auburn University Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch Project Alabama No. 497.
- Copyright 1981 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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