Bioproductivity of ponds of VI fish breeding zone

Abstract. The paper highlights the prospects of cultivating heat-loving species, such as Australian crayfish and freshwater shrimps in the VI fish breeding zone. Australian crayfish and freshwater shrimps breeding is considered economically attractive for entrepreneurs, having a limited area for farming facilities. At the same time, pond ecosystems require the individual approach and close study in terms of the environmental conditions for the cultivated species upkeeping and the natural forage base that determine the pond biological productivity. Today, there are no clear recommendations on the summer keeping warmwater aquaculture species, in particular, Australian crayfish and freshwater shrimp in the Astrakhan region. To cultivate the new objects of warmwater aquaculture in 2017-2019 the small innovative enterprise Modern Sharapovskiy Fish Breeding Complex researched the production potential of ponds of various categories for receiving marketable products; there was studied the forage base, biomass of zooplankton and zoobenthos satisfying the nutritional needs of farmed objects. As a result of experimental work, it was found that in pond No.2, where freshwater shrimps were grown, there were registered 5 species of Cladocera and 1species of Rotifera, while in pond No.1 used for breeding Australian crayfish there were registered 4 species of Rotifera and only 1 species of Cladocera. Presumably, the observed species composition of the studied ponds is specified by the selectivity of the cultivated objects in zooplankton consumption. The possibility of increasing the bio-productivity of ponds by alternate growing aquaculture and agricultural products has been considered.