Water quality in a reservoir used for carp production

Guadalupe Reservoir, on the San Cayetano river, feeds into the Lerma river about 18 km north of Toluca in the State of Mexico, Mexico. On August 9, 1995, more than 6000 Israeli carp (Cyprinus carpio v. specularis and rubrofruscus) died within a week in this reservoir. We investigated the cause of the fish mortality and we determined whether the reservoir could be used again for carp culture. Five days after the accident the residual chlorine was 4 times higher than the maximum permissible amount. Ammonia nitrogen, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were also above the recommended levels. Six months later, the amount of some contaminants in the water, such as chlorine, were back to normal ranges of water quality criteria for aquaculture. Ammonia, BOD and COD concentrations were lower to those found in the previous analyses but remained higher than the recommended levels. Most probably, residual chlorine was the cause of carp mortality as the chlorine level was very high when the fishes died.