When selecting the reccommended site for sitting your fish farm, the major factor which is not under your control is the availability of water. Therefore this should determine where your fish pond will be located. If you are interested in using an earthen pond, then your fish farm must be located in not very swampy area.
When selecting a good site for a new farm, environmentally sensitive areas like very swampy areas, coral reefs or mangrove forest should be avoided. Establishing a farm would have severe consequences on local biodiversity if, for example, mangrove forests or wetlands were cleared and converted into fish ponds. Farm effluents would also eventually have a considerable negative impact.
Excessive nutrients via the influx of farm effluents would result in eutrophication, making waters murky, blotting out sunlight and negatively affecting the growth of plants, corals and the area’s other denizens.
Another benefit of avoiding these areas is that swamps are highly prone to flooding and coastal mangrove areas are infested with mosquitoes – a serious health risk for farm workers.
“Looking at the example of Zambia, many farms are located in so called ‘dambo’ areas, which are located in low-lying swamps, often below flood level. Here ponds are not drainable since water continuously flows in from underground. These areas are very prone to flooding, so these are not ideal sites for fish farming,” Hoevenaars explains.
When selecting sites for marine cages, unless you have the capital available to buy top-of-the-range equipment, any area that is exposed and vulnerable to big storms should be avoided since storms can repeatedly batter and destroy expensive and hard-to-repair pens and cages. Instead, a sheltered area that is protected from high waves should be selected.
Read Also: How to Identify and Treat Diseases on your Fish Farm
Earthen Pond
For concrete tank, the fish farm must have access to clean and enough water.
Appropriate site selection is one of the most important factors that determine the success of the fish farm. Before construction of the pond, the water retention capacity of the soil and the soil fertility has to be taken care of because these factors influence the response to the organic and inorganic fertilization in the farm pond.
The selected site should have adequate water supply round the year for pond filling and other uses. The pond construction has to be based on the topographic area. In swampy and marshy areas, bunds should have a greater accumulation of soil to build the pond of a preferable size. Self-draining ponds are ideal for higher elevation areas.
The site should be easily accessible by road or any form of transport to reach the market for easy fish disposal. In addition to this, the accessibility of inputs such as feed, seed, fertilizer and the construction material should also be available nearby the site. The site should be free from pollution, industrial waste, domestic waste and any other harmful activities.
Concrete Pond
Other factors like security, how to get farm attendants etc are under your control though they must be considered as well. In addition apart from water, the type of soil is also important especially for an earthen pond. This is because your fish pond must be on a soil that can retain water to prevent water seepage.
The land where earthen pond will be must also be a bit sloppy to aid movement of water by gravity. Water used in fish ponds should be from natural sources like rivers, lakes, boreholes or rain.
The water should have high level of dissolved oxygen and free of silt, poison, predators and unwanted fish. Ponds should not be sited in areas prone to flooding as this may cause heavy losses from washed or escaped fish.
Related: Anatomy of Fishes: Female Fish and their Reproductive Strategies