Selecting a site for your fish pond is the most important stage in ensuring a successful fish farming venture. When deciding where to put your fish pond, these are some of the key considerations;
Availability of water
When selecting a site for your fish pond, you need to ensure there is a constant supply of water that does not drain during the dry season. The constant water supply will ensure that the pond water is regularly renewed thereby facilitating favourable oxygenation and maintaining suitable water levels.
Quality of the water
While having enough water is definitely important, ensuring that this water is of the right quality, in terms of its physical and chemical characteristics will be crucially vital in determining whether or not your fish farm will be established.
You will, therefore, need to have the water analyzed in order to ascertain the physical parameters (temperature, density, viscosity, colour, turbidity, transparency) and chemical parameters (pH, conductivity, alkalinity, hardness, dissolved oxygen, phosphorous, nitrogen ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, carbon dioxide).
Stream flow
To ensure that your fish farm will be in business throughout the year, you will need to ensure that adequate water supply and volume is sustained. This means that you must have access to a water source that will replace the volumes of water lost through a leak in the drain, evaporation or Infiltration.
Soil
The type of soil at the site of your proposed fish farm should have the physical characteristics that will assure permeability and the stability of the pond’s dykes. It should also have the right chemical characteristics that will assure the waters’ productivity. Sandy-clay soils have just the right qualities for the construction of fish ponds, notably the ability to hold water.
The area’s topography
Your proposed fish farm should be located on a site with favourable topography and which will, therefore, facilitate the pond construction, the supply (and draining) of pond water by gravity, construction of dykes without too much soil displacement and a favourable slope.
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