Seasonal composition and abundance of zooplankton in snakehead fish ponds at Ham Giang commune, Tra Cu district, Tra Vinh province

These zooplankton samples and water samples were taken at 4 sites in the fish pond area (2 outside points in the river and 2 inside point in the fish pond). The results were recorded 76 zooplankton taxa which were belong to 28 genuses and 3 phylums (Protozoa, Rotifera and Arthropoda: Cladocera, Copepoda, Ostracoda). The Rotatoria phylum was dominated over 70% of species composition and 45% of individual density. The zooplankton communities in the outside were more diverse than those in the fish ponds. Besides, there was a significant difference between the individual density of the inside and outside ponds. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index showed that the water qualities were from lightly to moderately polluted at all points. Water of inside pond was polluted by organic materials, with the dominated by Brachionus genus. The Bray – Curtis similarity showed that the difference between zooplankton communities of inside and outside ponds was about 40%. Therefore, the fish pond water could affect natural water sources.