Fish can live healthier in aquarium with good water quality than they do in the wild. Maintaining
the quality of the water in fish facility is needed to avoid fluctuation of physicochemical
parameter values and contamination with pathogenic microorganisms that may cause serious
illness or even death among the fish. Contamination of the water, especially with animal
pathogens which are also pathogenic to human may pose health risk to those who are handling
or in direct contact with the water and fish in the facility. Therefore, there is a need to assess the
water quality and the risk associated with microorganisms in the water and the cultured animals.
The aim of this study was to determine the water quality with regard to the physicochemical
and microbiological parameters as well as the risk associated with bacteria in the water of the
fish facility. Samples of water from the water source and also from aquariums in the fish facility
were collected and analyzed. The water samples were plated on nutrient agar for bacterial
enumeration then bacterial colonies growing on the agar plates were randomly picked and
purified. (GTG)5
-PCR analysis was carried out to analyse the heterogeneity of the genome of the
bacterial isolated and a dendrogram was constructed from the (GTG)5
-PCR profile to determine
the genotypic group of the bacterial isolates. The risk associated with the bacteria from the
water was analyzed with respect to their antibiotic resitance. The result of this study revealed
that the (GTG)5
-PCR analysis was able to group the bacteria into 2 main genotypic clusters
which were further grouped into several sub-clusters. From the dengrogram, 12 representative
isolates were selected and identified using 16S rRNA sequencing. The identification confirmed
the presence of Aeromonas veronii (8 isolates), Aeromonas jandaei (2 isolates), Plesiomonas
shigelloides (1 isolate) and Pseudomonas alcaligene (1 isolate) from the water samples. All
of the isolates exhibited resistant towards ampicillin, penicillin and gentamicin. This study
revealed that the water from the fish facility harboured genetically diverse antibiotic resistance
bacteria which may pose health risk to the fish and also to those who are in direct contact
with the contaminated water and fish in the facility. Therefore, water in fish facility should be
monitored regularly and handled with caution.