Aquaculture has recently made a great stride forward. New areas of fish ponds have been developed and old culture systems have been rejuvenated and intensified. However, development of aquaculture is dependent on knowledge related to various disciplines, some associated with the fish itself, such as physiology and genetics, and others with the environment, such as limnology of the culture system and the life cycles of food organisms. The multi-disciplinary nature of aquaculture is strongly expressed in the subject of feeding fish in ponds. Here a number of disciplines converge: anatomy and physiology of fish feeding, animal nutrition, and ecology offish feeding. Efficient diets and feeding charts for fish in ponds can be produced only by integrating all these disciplines. However most researchers concentrate on one of these aspects, and only a few see the whole picture. The intention of the book is to acquaint researchers, students and fish farmers with the holistic approach. No doubt more extensive and deeper reviews can be found in the literature than those presented here if each discipline is considered separately, but the aim is to combine them, so that the physiologist, for example, will understand some of the ecological problems and the ecologist will appreciate some of the nutritional difficulties.

My thanks are due to many who helped me write this book, by fruitful discussions, or by reading the manuscript and offering their critical remarks.