Effects of fish feed addition scenarios with prometryn on Microcystis aeruginosa growth and water qualities.

ABSTRACT

The number of undesirable environmental impacts of fish feed has been reported widely. Although repeated fish feed exposures are more prospective to occur in water, previous studies were mostly conducted as a single exposure of fish feed. In order to fill these gaps, a 40 days incubator experiment was conducted to explore the effects of fish feed addition scenarios during the lag phase with prometryn on both Microcystis aeruginosa growth and concentrations of nutrients. The maximum algae densities in groups of single exposure were 6.0-26.2% and 8.8-74.4% higher than those in groups of double and triple exposures, respectively (P < 0.05). At the beginning of the experiment, concentrations of nutrients in groups with different feed exposure scenarios were significantly different. The pattern of nutrient limitation showed a transformation from phosphorus limitation to nitrogen limitation generally. Furthermore, the average inhibition rates of algae by prometryn in the case of a single fish feed exposure were 4.6-9.4% lower than those under double exposures, and 22.0-26.8% lower than those under triple exposures (P < 0.05). In addition, algae growth rates have been developed as a function of concentrations of consumed nutrients (R2 = 0.410-0.932). Based on the above results, we concluded that in terms of limiting algae growth multiple low-dosage additions of fish feed were considered as a better addition pattern. By optimizing feed addition scenarios, there is considerable potential to increase the environmental sustainability of aquaculture.