Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 6215–6218

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Efficacy of vermicompost as fish pond manure – Effect on water quality

and growth of Cyprinus carpio (Linn.)
Vaneet Inder Kaur *, Meera D. Ansal
Department of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana 141004, Punjab, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Experiment was conducted in (0.002 ha) cemented tanks for 120 days to assess the efficacy of vermicom-
Received 7 August 2009 post as fish pond manure at a dose of 10,000 kg/ha/year (VC10), 15,000 kg/ha/year (VC15) and 20,000
Received in revised form 22 February 2010 (VC20) kg/ha/year) in comparison to semi-digested cow dung (8–10 days old), which was utilized at a
Accepted 24 February 2010
dose of 20,000 kg/ha/year (CD20). One fourth of the doze was applied 15 days prior to fish stocking and
Available online 24 March 2010
rest in equal weekly installments. Twenty fingerlings of common carp, Cyprinus carpio (Linn.) were
stocked (10,000/ha) and fed with supplementary diet @ 2% of their body weight daily. Water quality
Keywords:
parameters were found to be within the optimum limits for carp culture in all the treatments. Zooplank-
Vermicompost
Cow dung
ton production in all the treatments did not differ significantly. Fish growth in terms of weight gain, per-
Organic manure cent weight gain, specific growth rate and yield was maximum in VC15 followed by VC20, VC10 and CD20.
Water quality Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cyprinus carpio

1. Introduction a form of organic manure, which can be produced from variety of

organic wastes (cow dung, poultry waste, piggery waste, agricul-
Freshwater aquaculture in India has made significant contribu- tural waste, etc.) by earthworms and is made up of worm castings
tion towards total fish production involving different types and (faecal excretion) and other organic material (Reinecke and Al-
levels of inputs (Ayyappan and Jena, 2003). Among various prac- berts, 1987). Sulochana et al. (2009) observed higher manurial va-
tices, depending upon the variable inputs, semi-intensive carp cul- lue of the vermicompost as compared to raw cow dung and poultry
ture practices in rural aquaculture involve utilization of various droppings in terms of its effect on hydrobiology of water. Even if
organic manures for plankton (natural food) production. These vermicompost dries up, there is no harm to its microflora hence,
manures are either directly utilized by the fish or they enrich the it is referred to as potential biological manure or biofertilizer
aquatic ecosystem with autotrophic (plankton) and heterotrophic (Meena, 2003). Vermicompost is found to be more nutritious than
microbial communities (Schroeder, 1987; Muendo et al., 2006). Or- cow dung/farmyard manure in terms of more carbon and phos-
ganic manures if not decomposed completely before application in phorus, less potassium and comparable nitrogen (Shinde et al.,
aquaculture pond may deteriorate the water quality as they utilize 1992). Moreover, vermicompositing is a farmer friendly technique,
oxygen during decomposition. Therefore, the amount of any where vermicompost can be prepared from variety of locally
organic manure to be added in the pond mainly depends upon available plant and animal wastes without much cost, labour and
its biological oxygen demand (BOD), as their excessive use may exerpertise.
cause severe dissolved oxygen depletion in the pond and results In view of the above discussion, the present study was con-
in production of toxic gases like CO2, H2S, NH3, etc., and can spread ducted to study the effect of vermicompost on water quality, zoo-
parasitic diseases (Chakrabarty et al., 2008). Hence, to minimise plankton production and growth of exotic carp, Cyprinus carpio (L.)
the harmful effects of organic manures on pond ecosystem, the in comparison to traditional manure used in aquaculture i.e. semi-
best alternative is to utilize fully decomposed/digested organic digested cow dung.
manures in comparison to undigested or semi-digested organic
manures.
Among the decomposed manures, vermicompost is rich in all 2. Methods
types of major and minor nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, antibiotics,
growth promoters etc. (Mitra, 1997; Bhusan and Yadav, 2003). It is An outdoor experiment was carried out in 20 m2 (0.002 ha) ce-
mented tanks for 120 days. Tanks were prepared a fortnight before
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 0161 2414061; fax: +91 0161 2414054. stocking of fish. At the base of the tank, 5 cm thick soil bed was
E-mail addresses: vinnygulati@gmail.com, vikgulati@rediffmail.com (V.I. Kaur). provided and filled with tubewell water. Manuring was done with

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.02.096
6216 V.I. Kaur, M.D. Ansal / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 6215–6218

semi-digested (8–10 days old) cow dung at a dose of 40 kg ln = Natural logrithum.

(20,000 kg/ha/year – CD20) as control and vermicompost (prepared Data was analyzed using STATGRAPHICS statistical package.
from cow dung) at a dose of 20 kg (10,000 kg/ha/year – VC10), 30 kg Differences among different treatments were calculated by using
(15,000 kg/ha/year – VC15) and 40 kg (20,000 kg/ha/year – VC20). one way ANOVA (P 6 0.5).
Out of total amount, 25% of the doze was applied 15 days before
stocking of fish and rest in equal weekly instalments after stocking
of fish (Table 1). Twenty fingerlings of common carp, C. carpio (L.) 3. Results
were stocked (10,000/ha) per tank (0.002 ha). The average length
and weight of fish was 14.73 cm (14.67–14.85 cm) and 49.94 g The study revealed that during the experimental period, water
(48.4–51.2 g), respectively, at the time of stocking. quality parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, soluble
Traditional feed (deoiled rice bran – 44%, deoiled mustard cake phosphate and ammonical nitrogen did not vary significantly in
– 44% and fish meal – 10%, mineral mixture – 1.5% and common various treatments, whereas, pH and total alkalinity differed signif-
salt – 0.5%) was used for feeding the fish @ 2% of its body weight icantly being maximum in VC20 and CD20. The values of all these
daily. The proximate analysis of feed ingredients and of the diet
was carried out by following the methods of AOAC (2000). Proxi-
mate composition (on dry matter basis) of the prepared diet was
as – crude protein – 31.26%, crude fat – 4.78%, crude fiber –
12.80%, nitrogen free extract – 33.33%, ash – 14.97% and energy –
3.30 kcal/g. The feed was adjusted according to increase in the fish
body weight observed after each monthly sampling. A constant
water level was maintained in the experimental ponds by adding
tubewell water to compensate the water losses due to evaporation
and seepage. Water quality such as temperature, dissolved oxygen,
pH, total alkalinity, soluble phosphate and ammonical nitrogen
were measured at fortnightly intervals by following the standard
methods of APHA (1991). Quantitative estimation of zooplankton
was also done at fortnight intervals by using Sedgwick Rafter Cell.
Growth of fish (n = 10) was assessed by measuring body length and
weight at regular monthly intervals. Data was analyzed for follow-
ing parameters:
Weight gain ðgÞ ¼ Final body weight ðgÞ  Initial body weight ðgÞ Fig. 1. Changes in dissolved oxygen (mg l1) in different treatments.

Percent weight gain ð%Þ

Final body weight ðgÞ  Initial body weight ðgÞ
¼  100
Initial body weight ðgÞ

Specific growth rate ð% wt gain=dayÞ

ln final body weight ðgÞ  ln initial body weight ðgÞ
¼  100
culture period ðdaysÞ

Table 1
Manuring schedule (per pond) in different treatments.

Treatments Total dose (kg) Initial dose (kg) Weekly dose (kg)
(manure)
CD20 40 10 0.625
VC10 20 5 0.312
VC15 30 7.5 0.468
VC20 40 10 0.625
Fig. 2. Changes in soluble phosphate (mg l1) in different treatments.

Table 2
Hydro-biological parameters (average value ± S.E.) in different treatments during the culture period.

Parameters Treatments
CD20 VC10 VC15 VC20
Temperature (°C) 16.49 ± 1.74a (9.5–23.5) 16.52 ± 1.76a (9.5–23.8) 16.46 ± 1.78a (9.0–23.5) 16.47 ± 1.77a (9.5–23.8)
D.O. (mg l1) 14.64 ± 1.01a (9.8–16.8) 15.78 ± 1.79a (6.0–22.4) 15.20 ± 1.13a (12.0–20.8) 15.02 ± 1.50a (8.4–23.6)
pH 9.10 ± 0.07a (8.6–9.4) 9.12 ± 0.15a (8.5–10.0) 9.18 ± 0.08a (8.9–9.7) 9.24 ± 0.77a (9.1–9.7)
Total alkalinity (mg l1) 239.11 ± 10.48a (192–298) 212.67 ± 6.49b (186–250) 215.78 ± 4.30b (204–240) 232.00 ± 7.21ab (192–264)
Soluble phosphate (mg PO4–P l1) 0.16 ± 0.04a (0–0.41) 0.12 ± 0.02a (0–0.19) 0.15 ± 0.04a (0.07–0.38) 0.14 ± 0.03a (0–0.34)
Ammonical nitrogen (mg NH3–N l1) 0.002 ± 0.002a (0–0.02) 0.007 ± 0.007a (0–0.06) 0.007 ± 0.005a (0–0.05) 0.004 ± 0.003a (0–0.03)
Zooplankton production (No. l1) 558.96a (185–1445) 567.86a (80–1607) 581.47a (124–1731) 549.19a (138–1314)

Values with different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P 6 0.5).

Values in Parenthesis are range of the parameter.
 V.I. Kaur, M.D. Ansal / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 6215–6218 6217

Fig. 3. Changes in ammonical nitrogen (mg l1) in different treatments.

Fig. 6. Changes in zooplankton population (No. l1) in different treatments.

Table 3
Growth parameters in different treatments.

Parameters Treatments
CD20 VC10 VC15 VC20
Average initial 49.08 ± 0.96a 51.20 ± 0.58a 48.40 ± 0.92a 50.00 ± 1.48a
weight (g)
Average final 76.60 ± 2.48c 81.00 ± 2.09bc 94.40 ± 1.44a 86.00 ± 0.73b
weight (g)
Weight gain (g) 27.52 29.80 (8.28) 46.00 (67.15) 36.00 (30.81)
Percent weight 56.07 58.20 (3.79) 95.04 (69.50) 72.00 (28.41)
gain (%)
Specific growth 0.37 0.38 (2.70) 0.55 (48.64) 0.45 (21.62)
rate (SGR) (%
wt gain/day)
Yield per tank (kg) 1.53 1.62 (5.88) 1.89 (23.52) 1.72 (12.41)

Values with different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P 6 0.5).

Fig. 4. Changes in pH in different treatments. Values in parenthesis are % change over control.

was recorded in VC15 and VC20 (Table 3). However, maximum

weight gain (46.0 g), percent weight gain (95.04%), specific growth
rate (0.55% weight gain/day) and yield/tank (1.89 kg) after
120 days was observed in treatment VC15 (67.15%, 69.50%,
48.64% and 23.52% higher than the respective values in the control
– CD20) followed by VC20, VC10 and CD20 (Table 3). In the present
study, dissolved oxygen content in VC15 ponds remained slightly
higher, despite holding higher biomass as compared to CD20 indi-
cating better water quality contributing to higher weight gain. In
addition to this, zooplankton profile was also found better. Growth
of fish in VC10 and CD20, however, did not differ significantly.
Although growth of fish in VC20 was significantly lower than
VC15, but was significantly higher than CD20.

4. Discussion
Fig. 5. Changes in total alkalinity (mg l1) in different treatments.

So far, the information regarding efficacy of vermicompost as

manure in aquaculture ponds is scanty. Deolalikar and Mitra
parameters were however, within the recommended range (Boyd (2004) have reported comparable efficacy of vermicompost with
and Tucker, 1998) for carp culture (Table 2 and Figs. 1–5). Zoo- other commercial manures used in aquaculture. Vermicompost
plankton population did not differ significantly among different has also been reported to result in higher survival and growth of
treatments (Table 2 and Fig. 6). Water quality parameters showed aquatic organisms including fish and prawn (Kumar et al., 2007)
least fluctuations during the culture period in VC15 (Figs. 1–5). without adversely affecting the water quality. Vermicompost (pre-
Survival of fish was 100% in all the treatments. There was a stea- pared from paper mill solid waste) has been found to increase the
dy increase in the weight of C. carpio in experimental tanks. As net productivity from 32.03 to 220.83 C/m/h along with better
compared to control (CD20), significantly higher growth of fish growth of Indian major carp, Labeo rohita, when compared with
6218 V.I. Kaur, M.D. Ansal / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 6215–6218

other available organic manures (Deolalikar and Mitra, 2004). Cha- References
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