2002 Annual Report for FS02-159
Improving Stocking and Insect Control Procedures to Increase Survival of Saltwater ShrimpPost-larvae in Inland Ponds
Summary
Inland saltwater shrimp culture in Alabama and the southeast is in its infancy but has the potential to diversify a well established aquaculture industry based on channel catfish and to provide a high-value product that is now mostly imported. The prominent limiting factor to sustainable production is low survival.
The salinity of inland saltwater ponds in Alabama are of a different ionic composition than marine water of similar salinity. Farming techniques for marine water aren’t applicable to inland salt water ponds. The producer also suspects that predacious aquatic insects play an important detrimental role in low post-larval survival.
In this project, the producer plans to carry out controlled experiments in tanks and trials in ponds to accomplish the following three objectives. 1.) Determine how long to hold post-larvae in nursery tanks following acclimation to pond salinity before subjecting them to the stress of transfer to ponds. 2.) Verify if dragonfly nymphs are preying on shrimp post-larvae and quantify the magnitude of the predation. 3.) Test an alternative pond management strategy that protects recently stocked post-larvae from insect predation.