Assessing Swamp Water Quality For Fish Culture through Periphyton Communities: Case study of Kawunganten Swamp, Cilacap, Indonesia

Kawunganten Swamp is in Cilacap Indonesia has a fishery potential for aquaculture of indigenous fish. Assessing water quality by using Periphyton is hopefully more reliable. The aim of this research is to assess the water quality status compared to water quality standards, to determine pollution level based on periphyton and to evaluate the accuracy of using periphyton for assessing water quality of Kawunganten swamp. This research was conducted using a survey method in 3 sub swamp of Bringkeng, Grugu and Babakan during 4 months. The results showed that the use of periphyton can better reflect actual conditions and at the same time determine the level of fertility. Based on the periphyton community, the water quality of the Kawunganten swamp was in the β-mesosaprobic phase. The abundance of periphyton was 10,503 ind.m-2 and was dominated by the Baccilariophyta which is generally preferred by fish. Kawunganten Swamp was only slightly polluted by a small amount of organic matter. It was concluded that the water quality of Kawunganten swamp was still good enough to support the life of native fish.