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Policy Brief 2019/2 - Water quality and bacterial community management in shrimp ponds in Rembang, Indonesia: Towards sustainable shrimp aquaculture

  • Yustian Rovi Alfiansah
  • Astrid Gärdes

Abstract

SUMMARY Shrimp pond aquaculture, including the Pacific white-leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei farming has to deal with water deterioration and bacterial diseases. To tackle these problems, water is exchanged and probiotics are applied. However, these approaches may lead to environmental problems and an increase of rearing operational cost. We investigated water quality and aquatic bacterial communities in two farming systems, semi-intensive and intensive, of which no water was exchanged during shrimp rearing. We found diverse halophilic (‘salt-loving’) bacteria in pond waters, which may become candidates of beneficial bacteria for shrimp farming. Disease events in both systems coincided with sudden decrease of pH and shift of dominant bacterial communities. The disease events ceased when water pH was adjusted to above pH 8. Therefore, we counselled to add limestones to discard sludge regularly into sludge reservoir and to add treated fresh-seawater to maintain shrimp pond water quality, especially pH and salinity. Finally, we promoted a molasses addition into pond water to increase natural food availability and to maintain beneficial bacterial communities. We conclude that maintenance of water quality and bacterial community dynamics allow avoiding rearing failure, reducing operational costs and minimizing pollution caused by shrimp pond effluents.

Cite this activity

Alfiansah Y.R. and Gärdes A. (2019) Policy Brief 2019/2 - Water quality and bacterial community management in shrimp ponds in Rembang, Indonesia: Towards sustainable shrimp aquaculture https://dx.doi.org/10.21244/zmt.2019.002

Details

Date 01.01.2019
Open Access Open Access (open)
Eprints_link https://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/5616

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