There are fish farms, which grow those varieties of fish that eat algae. For instance, a fish known as tilapia. It consumes a good amount of algae along with the artificial food given in the farm ponds.
Farmers introduce cow dung, guano etc. to the pond. Decomposers break down these materials into abiotic components and release nutrients. With the help of these abiotic components and light, algae grow in the pond.
Eating these algae, tilapia fish will grow and increase in number.
If the fish are hungrier, they will consume more algae. When the number of fish increases in the pond they will need more algae to eat, which in turn will reduce the number of algae present in the pond. Lack of availability of food will lead to the starvation of fish and even their death.
In order to avoid such a disaster, farmers constantly check their pond and make sure that enough food is available for the fish they grow. They learn to maintain the delicate balance between algae and fish in the pond.
Producers and consumers exist in natural water bodies also. For instance, in a stream or pond ecosystems number of fish, that eats algae, increases with the escalation in algal population. If the number of fishes that eats algae increases uncontrollably, the availability of the algae would come down and these fishes will die due to starvation in due course of time. However, the consumers, the carnivorous fish that eat other fish would control the population of the former. Such cycle of interaction between abiotic factors, producers and consumers maintain the balance in any ecosystem.
Let us play a game where you take the role of a farmer growing fish which eats only algae.
Once you open the game, you could set the following parameters using sliders
Initial number of algae
Initial number of fish
Hunger of fish
Reproductive rate of algae (speed with which the number of algae increases)
You could see the change in the number of algae and fish in the boxes when you run the game. A graph also will appear on the side representing the number of algae and fishes that you could compare the relationship between them.
Now let us check
Condition 1
Set the reproduction rate of algae at 10 and hunger at 10 and the number of algae at 100. Check what will happen to the number of fishes when the time reaches 400
Condition 2
Change the number of algae 200, check what will happen to the fish population
Condition 3
Check what will happen to your fishes if you reduce the reproductive rate of algae from 10 to 0.
Condition 4
Make your fish hungrier by increasing the hunger rate from 5 to 10 and check what happens to the algal population
Can you tell what happened to fishes by looking into the graph given below?
The Fish farm
Let's talk about a fish farm.
There are fish farms, which grow those varieties of fish that eat algae. For instance, a fish known as tilapia. It consumes a good amount of algae along with the artificial food given in the farm ponds.
Farmers introduce cow dung, guano etc. to the pond. Decomposers break down these materials into abiotic components and release nutrients. With the help of these abiotic components and light, algae grow in the pond.
Eating these algae, tilapia fish will grow and increase in number.
If the fish are hungrier, they will consume more algae. When the number of fish increases in the pond they will need more algae to eat, which in turn will reduce the number of algae present in the pond. Lack of availability of food will lead to the starvation of fish and even their death.
In order to avoid such a disaster, farmers constantly check their pond and make sure that enough food is available for the fish they grow. They learn to maintain the delicate balance between algae and fish in the pond.
Once you open the game, you could set the following parameters using sliders
You could see the change in the number of algae and fish in the boxes when you run the game. A graph also will appear on the side representing the number of algae and fishes that you could compare the relationship between them.
Now let us check
Can you tell what happened to fishes by looking into the graph given below?
Graph 1: