Fish mass mortality again .....?
It is like a yearly ritual that you are bound to come across in the newspaper about mass mortality of fishes in ponds especially around the months of June-July-August. Reports normally tagged with words like poison, mystery, oil pollution, sabotage and dragged along parties like the circus, factories, sewage plant and even schools.
Why June-July-August? These are the hottest months in Malaysia. Life in the pond have to be revolutionised slightly. The sunny day is bright with much light and nutrients accumulated in the pond allow further massive growth of algae. Dissolved nutrients like nitrates and ammonia tend to accumulate in man-made ponds. Algae will start to bloom out from much light and nutrients causing the ponds to look green. Green means lots and lots of algae…normally small cellular form of suspended algae like the chlorella.
Algae like plants release oxygen in the daytime and absorp back in the night when there is no light. The greener the water the more oxygen will be taken by the algae. But then, there are fishes like Tilapia which are prolific and breeds like rabbits or worse. Their insatiable breeding program is not helping the aquatic communities as this high population of fishes like the tilapia needs oxygen to survive too.
So, when the massive amount of algae needs to absorp the limited oxygen in water particularly in the late night or early morning before the sun is out…they have to compete with other underwater civilians particularly the fishes. Those who need oxygen most will begin to struggle and eventually suffocate when the level of oxygen drops to critical level. Therefore, first to be exterminated are the tilapias…They die in mass numbers from limited oxygen in water.
And the report in the local newspaper would be “....diesel from nearby circus poisoned and killed fishes in ponds!” or “..mysterious mass death of fish..” CSI team will be there to analyse, sample, study, record, and to blame others with their reports ranging from circus diesel, bacterial infection to bombs.
The reality is that it has nothing to do with ghost, bombs or cyanide… it is all about basic and proper understanding of pond management. Lake management is a practice by specialise people who study freshwater system. They are the limologist.
Filed under: Landscaping, Miscellaneous, Nature pool, Pond Management, Stories from the Past, Travel & Leisure, Water Garden | Tagged: aquaculture, Bio-filtration system, eco design, garden, Nature pool, ng kok hong, Pond Management, Ponds
