IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jasjnl/v4y2012i6p267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Feeding by the Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) on the Benthic Invertebrate Community in the Ponds

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Matute
  • Yvonne Manning
  • Mariam Kaleem

Abstract

The impact of fish feed on benthic invertebrates in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) ponds was investigated. Benthic samples were collected from 10 catfish ponds, five in which fish were fed and five in which fish were not fed. The fed and unfed ponds were identical in design, management history and stocking density. Four benthic composite samples were collected from each pond monthly for three months and the invertebrates extracted and pH values determined. Fish feeding significantly reduced invertebrate taxa, abundance and the pH in fed ponds as compared to the unfed ponds. The mean pH in fed and unfed ponds was respectively 6.38 and 7.59; this represents an approximate 71 fold difference. Differences in the benthic invertebrate community seem therefore to be associated with pH levels. Fish feed reduced the populations of certain catfish parasites and this could partly account for the increased fish yield in fed ponds. Ecologically, the results reveal that fish feeding has a reductive effect on invertebrate taxa richness and taxa abundance. The results of this investigation seems to suggest fish feeding has a disruptive effect on the natural ecological functions and processes ascribed to benthic invertebrates, by significantly reducing their abundance, taxa richness, and altering the hydrogen ion concentration of the benthic environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Matute & Yvonne Manning & Mariam Kaleem, 2012. "The Effect of Feeding by the Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) on the Benthic Invertebrate Community in the Ponds," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(6), pages 267-267, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:4:y:2012:i:6:p:267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/download/14447/11356
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/14447
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:4:y:2012:i:6:p:267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.