Zooplankton are essential for crayfish farming, and an abundance of zooplankton provides crayfish with an abundance of natural palatable bait. These zooplankton are rich in animal protein, and after the crayfish feeding, the crayfish are replenished with much-needed animal protein, which promotes the rapid growth and reproduction of crayfish, and also indirectly saves the bait expenditure of farmers, especially the animal food that is in high demand. Similarly, aquatic plants and algae provide crayfish with a palatable plant protein, cellulose and other trace elements for their growth and reproduction.
To some extent, zooplankton and algae and tender aquatic plants provide a complete food chain for crayfish without considering artificial feeding bait. If you have the heart to carefully observe the growth status of crayfish in wild ditches, you will find that in the fertile water environment with sufficient dissolved oxygen, there are abundant algae, lush aquatic grasses, a large number of zooplankton, sufficient crayfish bait, and relatively speaking, it will grow relatively larger and more.
All this has been said to show the importance of zooplankton to crayfish farming. But we all know that everything and food has two sides, and zooplankton is no exception, and the excess of zooplankton has a great negative impact on aquaculture, especially crayfish farming. When analyzing these negative effects, it is first necessary to understand how these zooplankton are produced.
How do zooplankton come about?
1. Definition of zooplankton: Zooplankton is a general term for heterotrophic invertebrates and chordate larvae that often float in the water and cannot produce organic matter by itself (heterotrophic refers to the inability to grow and reproduce by synthesizing organic matter by itself, and can only promote its own growth and reproduction by absorbing ready-made organic matter), and camping zooplanktonic living animal groups in the water.
There are many types of zooplankton, from low-grade micro-protozoa, coelenterates, ctenophores, rotifers, crustaceans, gastropods, etc., to higher tails, of which a wide variety, large number and wide distribution of copepods are the most prominent, in addition, including staged zooplankton, such as benthic zooplankton larvae and swimming animals (such as fish) pups, juvenile fish, etc. It is widely distributed in the water, both upper and lower and in the silt. Most zooplankton have poor mobility or cannot move, so when there are many zooplankton, you will often find that the patches on the surface of the water appear milky white or other colors, which seriously reduces the transparency of the water body.
2. Bait sources for zooplankton: Most of the bait sources of zooplankton include smaller animals and plants than them, mainly referring to phytoplankton, the most typical representative is a variety of algae, but also includes a variety of bacteria, the suspension of organic matter and the size of the relatively small size of the bait residue.
It can be seen that zooplankton like to live in fat water, which contains a lot of organic matter, and algae are also relatively abundant, so zooplankton generally grow and reproduce quickly in this ecological environment.
From the above analysis, we can see that zooplankton prefer to live in fertile water, which mainly forms a dynamic balance with algae. (This article is reproduced from [Teaching Fishing aquatic products].) If you have copyright questions, please contact [email protected]. ）
【Keywords】:Zooplankton algae pond aquaculture