Effect of three commercial microbial products on bacterial community in a freshwater fish polyculture system

A 30-day experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of three commercial microbial products, Novozymes Pond Plus, Zhongshui BIO-AQUA and Effective Microorganisms on bacterial community in polyculture tanks stocked with grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), gibel carp (Carassius auratus) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). Four treatments were tested. One treatment with no supplementation of the microbial products served as control. In the other three treatments, the microbial products were added at the intervals of 10 days respectively. During the experiment, grass carp and gibel carp were fed with a commercial formulated feed daily. Bacterial count and bacterial composition in water column of the tanks were monitored at the intervals of 3 days, and bacterial composition in sediment was determined at the end of the experiment. Bacterial composition in water column varied with progress of the experiment. Some bacteria from Novozymes Pond Plus and Effective Microorganisms could colonize in the tanks but did not dominate in bacterial community. This study reveals that the competition between the exogenous bacteria and native bacteria might be a factor determining the efficacy of the microbial products in improving water quality.