To separate the flocculated microbes, sample was sonicated for 1 min using probe sonicator (PCI Analytics, India) with 20 KHz amplitude. Subsequently, 0.1 mL of appropriate dilutions were plated in duplicates on trypton soya agar with 1.0% w/v NaCl for total heterotrophic bacterial count, thiosulfate citrate bile salt sucrose agar (TCBS) for Vibrio, Bacillus cereus agar (HiMedia, India) for Bacillus, Lactobacillus MRS agar (HiMedia, India) for Lactobacillus and Sabouraud dextrose agar for fungal count.