Occurrences of growth related target dissolved oxygen and ammonia in different catfish pond production systems in southeast Arkansas

Maintaining optimum water quality is vital for catfish pond production. Water quality performance was compared among traditional earthen ponds (TP), intensively aerated ponds (IP), and split-ponds (SP), from May to October, 2012, in southeast Arkansas. Overall mean DO concentrations were above the target DO level (3.0 mg/L) in all ponds without system difference. Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) in the IP system always had higher values and the overall mean (4.2 mg/L) was higher than other systems (<1.0 mg/L). The current study found similar DO performance among the three production systems, with a less than significant increasing occurrences of growth related target DO level from the IP to the SP, and then to the TP systems. The IP system had a less than significant higher percentage of TAN events above the target level (70% events > 1.0 mg/L) and a significant higher percentage of NH3 events above the target level (47% events > 0.6 mg/L) than the other two systems. But the high DO concentrations may have reduced the ammonia stress on fish growth in the IP system. Catfish farmers may consider adopting the two new production systems, especially the SP system, on their farms since the overall water quality performance is comparable to and even better than the traditional TP system, plus with higher feed inputs that rendered higher production from preliminary analysis in the new systems. More comprehensive production and cost analysis need to be conducted before the large scale full adoption.