Miami Aqua-culture, Inc.

www.miami-aquaculture.com

 

 

Marine Shrimp Aquaculture

Back in the 1970's Jacques Cousteau and others popularized the vision of "farming the seas". Since that time, perhaps the most successful form of ocean farming has been marine shrimp culture.

The technology now exists to bring selected adult shrimp (called broodstock) into reproductive readiness within on-shore tanks. This process is called maturation. The result of successful maturation is controlled spawning of eggs which quickly hatch into microscopic nauplii. Hatchery technology allows more than 60% of farm raised nauplii to reach post-larvae status (compared to fractions of 1% in the wild). Post-larvae can be sold and transported to separate farm facilities. These facilities can take the form of tanks, raceways or earthen ponds, some as large as 40 acres each.

Shrimp farming is now practiced in many countries around the world. There are just under an estimated 376,000 farms world wide covering about 3 million acres (source: World Shrimp Farming 1999). Most of these are in tropical, developing countries where climate, land values and labor costs make the business more economically feasible. The original vision of ocean farming was to mass produce inexpensive seafood to help feed the world's growing population, especially in developing countries. The modern reality of shrimp culture is to mass produce profits, promising jobs and an improved economy for the farming country.

During 1999 an estimated 814,250 metric tons (nearly 1.8 billion pounds) of shrimp were cultured (source: World Shrimp Farming 1999). This was a 10% increase over the previous year's production but not enough to keep up with the world's growing demand for shrimp. The industry still needs more investors with more good ideas on how to raise more shrimp, larger and faster with less land, less impact on the natural environment and more benefit to the producing countries.

For more information on marine shrimp aquaculture, please visit our Shrimp Culture book list.

The following periodicals will also contain useful information for the shrimp farmer:

 

Miami Aquaculture, Inc. can assist the shrimp farmer at many levels:

LIVESTOCK

Penaeus vannamei (a.k.a. Ecuadorian White Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei).  All our L. vannamei broodstock are considered "Disease Free/ High Health".  They are derived from Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) broodstock and then genetically selected for resistance to a variety of viral diseases such as Taura, White Spot and IHHN.    By definition, true SPF shrimp are only available from certain government approved facilities.  Once they leave those quarantine facilities, they are considered 'High Health".  SPF shrimp, although free of any specific disease or virus, are often a "blank slate", with no natural immunity or resistance to disease.  For this reason our shrimp often outperform SPF shrimp in real world growing conditions
Penaeus monodon (a.k.a. Tiger Prawn, Tiger Shrimp)  
Penaeus duorarum (a.k.a. Florida Pink Shrimp, Farfante duorarum)

MATURATION DIETS

We can deliver frozen squid, krill, bloodworms, enriched adult Artemia, mysis, oysters, etc. We also sell a variety of dry and moist pellet maturation diets. Irradiation services are also available for all frozen or dry feeds. However, the actual value of irradiation of feeds is still subject to debate.

HATCHERY EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

We sell a full range of equipment and supplies used in hatcheries including microscopes, glassware, many species of pure algae starter cultures, nylon & polyester screening, chemicals, etc., Miami Aqua-culture, Inc. distributes several lines of larval feeds covering the needs of all stages of larval shrimp culture. These include new Artemia replacement diets designed to greatly reduce the amount Artemia cysts used in culturing shrimp larvae.

Algae culture for shrimp larvae food Harvesting a shrimp pond
 
And don't forget our TRANS-SHIPPING and CONSULTING SERVICES!!!

 

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