Hi Dušanka,

To answer your questions i will answer them using my own expierence and opinions.

- What kind of equipment or what kind of cameras do you use to record fish behaviour (e.g. trout) in flow through and recirculating aquaculture system? Which equipment would you recommend?

I personally use an action camera. They are compact and most of them are waterproof(the cheaper ones have a housing that is waterproof).

Examples of these action cams are the GoPro Hero series and Dji osmo action(any of the gens should do for observations), but they aren't cheap. I have used a cheap amazon one for some observations, sadly that one is discontinued, but for the price any one would suffice with good ratings.

- What are the most important features of the equipment I need to pay attention to?

What you should look out for is depth pressure of the device and at what depth you will do your observation, battery life, storage capacity and how it films in low light conditions.

- How do you overcome low visibility due to turbid water?

With turbid water you need to use light at your advantage.

If there is direct sunlight on a spot, i would place them there. You can use a Secchi disk to determine visibility and place cameras according to those results.

- How many cameras do you usually use in one pond – I assume it is enough to cover only one part of the pond – which one to get the representative sample of fish behaviour?

I would place the cameras by structures and in open water, because fish behaviour can vary. So if the pond has lots of vegetation and rock work i would place 1 or 2 cameras there to capture both horizontal and vertical footage and do that for the rest of the pond.

- Is there anything else I need to pay attention to?

Yes, you can use live recording on some action cameras, but the wifi signal gets disrupted in water. So keep in mind if you do buy one with that feature that it also works in water. The fish that you are trying to observe plays a crucial role on how and where you place your cameras. if its a bottom dweller, most of the time there is no need to place a camera in the mid column of the pond. You would rather put it at the mid-top column to see if the fish surfaces.

Hope this helps,

Regards, Mohamed

Hellow Dusanka, GroCamera worked better for me it's compact, durable, and light-sensitive underwater video camera that can monitor fish feeding, behavior, and the general situation especially appropriate for cage and Liner ponds with less water turbidity.Try it and thank me later .Good luck in your research 🙏

Dear Fawaz Mohamed,

Thank you so much for your valuable answers. I really appreciate them. Do you have any experience with recording with action cameras on SD card? How many hours is it possible to record in good resolution? And how about battery – how long it takes before you’ll have to recharge them.

Thank you so much for your help.

Regards, Dušanka

Dear Fredrick Juma Syanya,

Thank you for your suggestion. I have checked the camera, and because we are having quite turbid water I’m afraid it will not excuse it’s high price (almost 2500 €).

Thank you, Dušanka