The Effect of Feed Composition on the Structure of Zooplankton Communities in Fishponds

With the intensification of aquaculture, the structure and dynamics of aquatic ecosystems are highly affected. At the same time, for a pond fish farmer, one of the most important tasks is to establish and maintain stable and favourable zooplankton populations. In this paper, we assess the effects of different supplementary feed types on zooplankton communities in freshwater fishponds. In an outdoor, experimental fishpond system, carp individuals of 2+ years of age were stocked and fed with either a fishmeal-based diet (FF), a plant meal containing experimental feed (PF) or cereals (CT). To compare the diversity of the zooplankton communities, we used the Shannon diversity index, and to assess the effects of environmental factors and the feed ingredients, we applied canonical correspondence analysis. We described the dynamics of zooplankton communities, where the biodiversity of rotifera and Crustacean communities showed temporal differences. In order to examine the effects of feed ingredients, temporal clustering was applied. The different diets did not consistently alter the composition of zooplankton communities. Consequently, the plant meal containing experimental feed had no negative effect on the planktonic biodiversity, which makes it suitable as an alternative feed source for fishponds at the applied level.