Efficiency of Aquaculture in a Neolithic Society

Being inspired by the lovely concept art of Star Trek's Nibiru, I have long thought that the Nibirans would use the tiered pools for aquacultural purposes, and would like to implement tiered aquacultural pools in the setting I am working on. The idea is that these farmers would build (slowly moving) pools of water, and transplant a species of krill-like crustaceans to be collected using tight-knit nets (as they are neolithic, the extent of their ability would be nets and buckets). The slowly moving pools are depicted in the first piece of concept art shown, with the water presumably coming from some sort of stream or river, and flowing through a series of steps that are used for aquaculture. For the sustenance of the actual crustaceans, I was thinking that they would simply clean out the algae and gunk that would build up in the somewhat stagnant areas of the pools (although that's just completely an idea- and certainly not set in stone).

So, assuming that a species similar to Humans farmed a species similar to krill, would the aliens be able to subsist entirely on aquacultural crustaceans, with no other frequent sources of food?

Extra credit

• Would this be more/less efficient than land-based agriculture?
• Anything else concerning the practicality of it?

posted about 8 years ago

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