Nursery ponds, or rearing ponds, are essential parts of the aquaculture process; farmers who aren't able to protect and grow their fingerlings properly have seen their production drop over 50%. Even in the wild, baby fish have a fairly high mortality rate. Many kinds of fish use a special spawning ground where infants can grow, protected from hungry predators. Nursery ponds imitate this, providing infants with an isolated place to grow until they're large enough to survive the later growing tanks.
Since nursery ponds are much more closely monitored to provide ideal growing conditions, fish are able to grown at a much higher density. They are also able to grow much faster, making well-managed nursery ponds especially efficient parts of aquaculture designs.
