What is meant by Composite fish Culture?
In a pond, the surface is occupied by floating organisms like plankton, the column region with live and dead organic matter sunk from the surface and the bottom with detritus or dead organic matter. The different trophic levels of a pond can be utilized for increasing the profitability of fish culture. Composite fish culture is a polyculture system in which compatible fishes of different species having different feeding habits are selected and grown in the pond to exploit all types of food available in the different regions of the pond for maximizing fish production. The aquatic vegetation, plankton, decayed organisms and other debris available in the surface, middle and bottom water layers are utilized as feed by the stocked surface, middle and bottom dwelling fishes. Catla, rohu, mrigal, cyprinus, grass carp and silver carp are highly considerable for composite fish culture.
