Aquaculture Terms

General

Aquaculture – also known as aquafarming, it is the controlled growth of aquatic species.

Pisciculture – aquaculture practice involving finned fish.

Extensive aquaculture – managed aquaculture dependent on the local natural setting, such as a pond or
coastal sea area.

Intensive aquaculture – managed aquaculture controlled through human engineered means, such as
managing water quality and sources of food.

Fish farm – locations used to grow populations of aquatic organisms, primarily fish.

Fish Hatchery – one form of a fish farm, managed with the intent of resupplying native wild populations in
natural environments.

Ornamental fish – are small fish, such as koi, which are typically grown to be kept in aquariums or small
landscape ponds.

Game fish – Fish, such as trout, raised to become replenishment stock for natural sport fisheries.

Wild fishing harvest – the commercial and personal fishing consumption in a specific area and over a specific
time frame.

Fish farming

Water Quality – the characteristics of water, such as water temperature and contamination, which define its
ability to sustain life and its purity from chemicals.

Culture tanks – Artificial holding areas used to rear fish farm stocks.

Fish husbandry – the breeding and rearing of fish for a variety of reasons.

Anadromous fish – migratory fish that live in salt water but breed in fresh water.

Catadromous fish – migratory fish that live in fresh water but breed in salt water.

Amphidromous fish – migratory fish that live in both fresh and salt water, independent of breeding.

Potamodromous fish – migratory fish that move within fresh water only.

Oceanodromous fish – migratory fish that move within salt water only.

Genotyping –
determining the genetic makeup of a fish or stock or the purpose of managing the efficiency of aquaculture
production.

In vitro fertilization – artificially fertilizing fish eggs in a laboratory setting.

Fish meal – commercially processed food source used in fish farming as a source of protein for the fish stock.

Fry – Development stage of fish immediately after the larvae stage, at an age of less than a week.

Fingerling – Development stage of fish following the fry stage and continuing into the first three to four months
of life.

Yearling – Development stage of fish following the fingerling stage and lasting until approximately one year of
age.

Brood stock – fish of any particular species which are raised for reproduction purposes.

Fish kill – a description of the number of fish stock to die in a specific amount of time.

Pond acreage – area committed to extensive aquaculture holdings at a fish farm or company.

Environmental

Overfishing – detrimental practice of removing more of a natural aquatic species than what natural
reproduction can support.

Contaminants – Both natural and artificial materials not typically found or found in unusually high
concentrations which can be detrimental to the health of wild or farmed aquatic species.

Induced spawning aims to bypass the natural biological processes to speed up the spawning in fish. This can
be done by using inducing agents and manipulating environmental conditions in captivity
Such health classification scheme has been proposed by Ghittino and de Kinkelin (1975):

• Fish free of specific pathogenic organisms (SPF) – refer to fish free of all species-specific pathogens. The water supply
must be completely sterile and exchanges of fish is possible only between SPF classified establishments. 98 Health
Management in Aquaculture

• Fish free of coded pathogenic organisms (CPF) – include fish free of all diseases appearing in a list drawn up by an
international agreement. For Southeast Asian countries, such a list has yet to be drafted. Water supply would have to be
pretreated. CPF classified farms can receive SPF or CPF fish but cannot dispatch fish to SPF farms.

• Fish free of specified diseases (SDF) – relate to fish reared in water supplies in which pathogens could exist, multiply or
be disseminated by wild fish. Disease could occur but readily controlled by therapy. Certification for freedom from
certain diseases can be issued but guarantees only for the diseases listed in the document. Such a farm can receive fish
from SPF or SDF farms as well as enterprises of similar sanitary level.

• Uncontrolled fish consist of fish not checked for the presence of disease or pathogens. Fish exchange is possible only
with farms of similar category but can receive fish from the three foregoing ones
Aquaculture, extensive - Production system characterized by (i) a low degree of control (e.g. of environment, nutrition,
predators, competitors, disease agents); (ii) low initial costs, low-level technology, and low production efficiency
(yielding no more than 500 kg/ha/yr); (iii) high dependence on local climate and water quality; use of natural
waterbodies (e.g. lagoons, bays, embayments) and of natural often unspecified food organisms.

Aquaculture, intensive - System of culture characterized by (i) a production of up to 200 tonnes/ha/yr; (ii) a high degree
of control; (iii) high initial costs, high-level technology, and high production efficiency; (iv) tendency towards increased
independence of local climate and water quality; (v) use of man-made culture systems.

Aquaculture, semi-intensive - Systems of culture characterized by a production of 2 to 20 tonnes/ha/yr, which are

dependent largely on natural food, which is augmented by fertilization or complemented by use of supplementary feed,
stocking with hatchery-reared fry, regular use of fertilisers, some water exchange or aeration, often pumped or gravity
supplied water, and normally in improved ponds, some enclosures, or simple cage systems.

Lumut: This is not a recognized term in the context of aquatic biology related to phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Lablab: is a term used to describe a natural assemblage of phytoplankton and zooplankton that serves as a primary
food source for milkfish in brackish water ponds.

Nostoc: This is a genus of cyanobacteria, which are photosynthetic bacteria and a type of phytoplankton, but Nostoc
alone does not represent an assemblage of phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Plankton: This term refers to the diverse collection of aquatic organisms that drift or swim weakly in water bodies. It
includes both phytoplankton and zooplankton but does not specifically represent the assemblage that serves as
food for milkfish in brackish water ponds.

Cage - Rearing facility enclosed on the bottom as well as on the sides by wooden, mesh or net screens. It allows natural
water exchange through the lateral sides and in most cases below the cage.

Pen - Fenced, netted structure fixed to the bottom substrate and allowing free water exchange; in the intertidal zone, it
may be solid-walled; the bottom of the structure, however, is always formed by the natural bottom of the waterbody
where it is built; usually coastal e.g. in shallow lagoons, but also inland e.g. in lakes, reservoirs. A pen generally encloses
a relatively large volume of water.

A hapa is a cage like, rectangular or square net impoundment placed in a pond for holding fish for various purposes.
They are made of fine mesh netting material. The mesh size is such that the fry or fish inside cannot escape. Hapas sizes
vary but the ideal size measures 3 m long, 3 m wide, and 1.5 m deep.

Crustacean - Aquatic animal belonging to the phylum Arthropoda, a major group of invertebrate organisms
characterized by their chitinous exoskeleton and jointed appendages, occurring in marine and freshwaters and on land,
e.g. crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimps, prawns, etc. Microcrustaceans include cladocerans and copepods.

Mollusc - (mollusk) Invertebrate animal belonging to the phylum Mollusca with a soft unsegmented body and covered
by a calcium carbonate shell, of 1 to 8 parts or sections. In some species the shell is lacking or reduced. The surface is
coated with mucus and cilia. Major cultured molluscs are mussels, oysters, scallops, cockles, clams (bivalves) and
abalone (gastropod).
Tide, neap - A tide of minimum amplitude, occurring when the sun, moon and earth are at right angles to one another
(1st and 3rd quarter of the moon).

Tide, spring- Happens for several days, every 14.3 days or roughly 15 days, when the high waters are much higher and
the low waters much lower than usual. Associated with full moons or new moons, when the sun, moon and earth are
aligned and the gravitational attraction of the sun and the moon both act together.

Upwelling - Upward movement of cool and nutrient-rich subsurface waters towards the surface often leading to
exceptionally rich areas. There exist various types of upwelling. For fisheries, the most important type is the wind-
induced coastal upwelling where the upward movement is a consequence of wind stress (along shore) and Eckman
transport (offshore).