Chapter one

Introduction

1.1    Background of study

The importance of aquaculture has gained momentum in many countries, especially those whose economies rely mainly on food export.The demand for fish in Nigeria mostly outstrips the local production. Nigeria is the largestfish consumer in Africa and among the largest fish consumers in the world with over 1.5millions tons of fish consumed annually. Yet, Nigeria imports over 900,000 metric tons of fishwhile its domestic catch is estimated at 450,000metric tons/year.

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms and plants in fresh, brackish or salt water. Awide variety of aquatic organisms are produced through aquaculture. These include: fishes,crustaceans, molluscs, algae, and aquatic plants. Unlike capture fisheries, aquaculturerequires deliberate human intervention in the organisms' productivity which results in yieldsthat exceed those from the natural environment alone. Such interventions are stocking waterwith seed (fingerlings), fertilizing the water, feeding the organisms, and maintaining waterquality.

The successful operation of a farm or hatchery is attributed to the key knowledge and technical applications such as: aquaculture engineering, biotechnology, water and soil chemistry, fish physiology, disease management etc. Among these, larviculture has taken priority in the industry.

Naturally, fishes in the wild depend on plankton for the survival of their hatchlings throughout their fry growing seasons. Some zooplankton are essentially used to feed fry of fish species that do not accept artificial feeds (Bryant &Matty, 1980). Arrhenius and Hanson (1993) reported that some fish species feed exclusively on zooplankton during their entire life while about 90% foods of herring (Clupeaharengus) consist of zooplankton. Sipauba-Tavares and Bachion (2002) reported that zooplankton reproduction and growth rate increases availability of better food quality for subsequent trophic levels.

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