Bob Lusk once told me that one way to look at management is the "Fifteen minute" theory.
That is to say, that all of our ponds, no matter how productive or not, need to be managed first and foremost to assure that there is no fifteen minute period during any year in which the entire pond runs out of oxygen.
We all have water to varying degrees. The next need of a fish's heirarchy is oxygen. The "art", if you will, of aquaculture management is to avoid this fifteen minutes. It stands to reason that all ponds can follow this general rule.
It's hard to grow a big fish if you kill them all once every year or two. This is why we incorporate aerators, rooted plants, bacteria, wind action, fish numbers, all with the idea of never consuming more oxygen than is being produced beyond the point of creating a critical event.
I have both "regular" ponds and aquaculture ponds and this rule really doesn't change. It's true that an aquaculture pond carries more pounds of fish per gallon of water, but it's still a system of oxygen produced vs. oxygen consumed.
If you're really good and create a system where there are high levels of oxygen all the time, your fish will grow faster, have fewer diseases, live longer and fight harder. Carrying capacity is just another term for oxygen availability.
My aquaculture ponds sometimes carry 5,000 lbs/acre, but I'm managing my recreational ponds for about 15% of that. Ambitious, yes, but impossible? No way. (That is all species and year classes by the way
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