Learn more about salinity in shrimp ponds
One of the most significant aspects of shrimp farming is the monitoring of water quality. Just like humans, they will be prone to illness if the air they breathe is polluted. The same is relevant for shrimp in the pond where they grow. There are several parameters that need to be maintained to ensure that the quality of shrimp pond water remains good, one of which is salinity.
What is salinity?
Salinity is the level of mineral salt dissolved in water. In order for shrimp to grow, the pond must have decent salinity levels. According to Suriawan and Soermadjati (2007), vannamei shrimp can grow well or optimally at the salinity of 15-25 ppt, even still possible to grow at 5 ppt. Salinity levels that surpass the threshold can cause stress or even death to shrimp.
Changes of salinity level in shrimp ponds need to be a concern even since the shrimp are still young (shrimp broodstocks). This is due to the fact that shrimp broodstocks are still very vulnerable to changes in the pond where they grow.
Factor that affects the salinity level of shrimp ponds
One of the factors that affect the salinity level in shrimp ponds is evaporation. Although evaporation reduces the volume of water in the pond, it does not cause the salt to evaporate. Therefore, high evaporation causes high salinity levels.
The most significant factor that affects the level of evaporation is the temperature of the water. Similar to boiling water over a fire, the bigger and hotter the fire (the temperature rises), the faster the water boils, generating evaporation (the rate of evaporation also rises). The width of the pond area also affects the rate of evaporation that occurs.
How to handle high salinity levels?
One of the measures to handle high salinity levels is to add the volume of water according to the water lost due to evaporation. For example, if the water in a pond reduces by 5 cm in one day, farmers can add fresh water according to the volume of water that has reduced. This measure is conducted to keep the salinity of the pond’s water stable.
Reference
Soemardjati, W and Suriawan, A. 2007. Petunjuk Teknis Budidaya Udang Vannamei Litopenaeus vannamei di Tambak. Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Directorate General of Aquaculture. Brackish Water Cultivation Center of Situbondo. Page 12-16.
About the Author
The author of this article is Akbar Wirasatya. Akbar is from Probolinggo, East Java, and is a graduate of the Aquaculture Study Program, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, Lambung Mangkurat University. Akbar currently works as a Field Assistant at JALA.
