Question

What do you understand by composite fish culture?

Answer 1

The practice of culturing a combination of five or six species of fish in a single fish pond is termed composite fish culture. The selection of several species of fish for culturing in a pond helps to enhance yield with the same cost and to utilise most of the available food in the water reservoir.
Fishes are selected on the basis of the following characteristics.

1. The selected species are fast-growing. For example, when common Indian carps (rohu, catla and mrigal) and exotic carps (silver carp, grass carp and common carp) are selected for culturing, they give 8-9 times more yield.
2. The fishes selected should not compete with each other for space and nutrition. They should live in distinct zones inside the pond. For example, catla and silver carp live mostly in the surface zone, rohu and grass carp live in the middle zone and mrigal and common carp live at the bottom.
3. The feeding habits of the species selected should be distinct. For example, silver carp feeds on phytoplankton, Catla feeds on zooplanktons, rohu and mrigal feed on decaying plants and detritus, grass carp feeds on aquatic plants and weeds. Thus, they can be grown together.
   Composite fish farming is advantageous, economical and profitable from a business point of view.