Presence and abundance of cyanobacteria in selected aquaculture ponds in Perak,Malaysia and the relationships with selected physicochemical parameters of water

The presence of cyanobacteria in aquaculture ponds can disrupt the water quality. this study was conducted to determine the abundance of cyanobacteria in selected aquaculture systems in perak,malaysia. this study also aimed to identify the relationships between cyanobacterial biomass with physicochemical properties of water. in this study,a total of 40 aquaculture fish ponds were sampled between december 2013 to march 2014 from 10 locations in perak,malaysia. the results revealed that cyanobacteria were present in all of the sampled aquaculture ponds. among all,75% of the sampled ponds contained chlorophyll-a exceeded 50 μg chl-a l-1 and the highest chlorophyll-a concentration was recorded at 436 μg chl-a l-1. this indicates that cyanobacteria are present in abundance in aquaculture water and could pose health risk to human through aquaculture fish consumption. pearson’s correlation analysis suggests that cyanobacterial biomass was significantly correlated to temperature,do and ph. however,there was no correlation detected among nutrients with cyanobacterial concentration in water column. regular monitoring of temperature,do and ph are crucial for an early detection of cyanobacterial occurrence in aquaculture industry in order to avoid economic losses,as well as adverse health impact to consumer. © 2015 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.