Eric De Muylder’s Experimental
Shrimp Farming System

On September 26, 2009, at the World Aquaculture Society meeting in Veracruz, Mexico, I interviewed Eric De Muylder, owner of CreveTec bvba, which does shrimp farm and feed consulting around the world.  We talked about an experimental shrimp farming system that De Muylder is developing in Belgium.

Shrimp News: How much production do you get from your system?

Eric De Muylder: In four and a half months, I produced 18 kilos of shrimp from a two-cubic-meter tank.  That’s the equivalent of 90,000 kilos per hectare per crop.  I harvested because I thought the density was getting too high and I was afraid that all the shrimp might die suddenly.  But the animals were in great shape when I harvested them, so I probably could have pushed production even higher.  Since I don’t have automatic oxygen controls on the system yet, I wanted to make sure I had live animals at the end of the cycle.

Shrimp News: What are your plans?

Eric De Muylder: I plan to build a 9,000-cubic-meter commercial farm somewhere in Belgium.  I have a potential investor that has the funds.  That project is moving along quite nicely right now.  But before that project can get started, I need to do some more trials with my system to double check the numbers and equipment.  I’ve run a couple of trials that failed because of equipment problems.  So before I do a commercial project, I’m going to run some trials with better equipment and controls.

Shrimp News: What do you use for aeration?

Eric De Muylder: Airstones.  In a commercial operation, I would probably use AeroTubes.

Shrimp News: You attribute a lot of your success to the biofloc reactor that you added to your growout tank.  Tell me a little about that reactor.

Eric De Muylder: What I’ve tried to do is exercise some control over biofloc production.  If you put shrimp and feed in a tank, you will get some floc production, but the floc will develop slowly.  You can accelerate its development by adding floc from another tank.  If you add sugar or a carbon source, you get explosive floc production that can get out of control and cause a drop in oxygen.  Another way of starting a tank is to keep a separate biofloc reactor within each growout tank.  My bioreactor occupies about five percent of the growout tank.  In the reactor, the bioflocs continue to remove ammonia from the water and produce food for the shrimp.  You benefit from having a lot of floc in your system, without heavy floc loads in your growout water that can interfere with growth.  In batches, I pump water from the main tank into the bioreactor.  The floc settles to the bottom of the reactor, and the clean water from the top of the reactor returns to the growout tank.

In my system I’m not adding sugar, so I get a combination of heterotrophic bioflocs, which convert ammonia into proteins for the shrimp, and autotrophic bacteria, which convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate.  If you’re working from one cycle to the next and dumping your water, the nitrate build up is not a problem.  You might have 150 ppm of nitrate after five months, but, if you kept it going for a couple of years, it would rise to 500 ppm or higher.  When nitrates get that high, something will happen and the system could crash.  Even though nitrates are not very toxic, something will happen for sure.  To remove the nitrate, you can do denitrification, which means nitrate is reduced to nitrite and nitrogen gas, a harmless gas that just evaporates into the air.

That process requires a carbon source, and your carbon source is biofloc and shrimp feces.  You might have to add a little extra carbon if things get out of balance.  Normally, you can run the system for four and a half months without adding carbon and with nitrate levels of 35 ppm, which is quite low.  I’ve never had to adjust my pH, which was 7.2 at the end of the last cycle.  The water quality was so good at the end of that cycle that I was able to restock immediately.

One of the great things about this system is that when you drain your tank to harvest the shrimp you still have floc in the bioreactor, so you can start a new crop almost immediately.

Information: Eric De Muylder, CreveTec bvba, Nieuwenbos 43, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium (phone 32-473-721-004, email eric@crevetec.be, webpage http://www.crevetec.be).

Source: Eric De Muylder.  Interview by Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International.  Veracruz, Mexico.  September 26, 2009.

Country Reports

Australia

Protecting Elite Shrimp Lines from Genetic Poachers

Will genetic engineering allow researchers to develop a 100% fail-proof system for protecting elite shrimp lines from genetic poachers?  Although research on this technology is in its infancy, it has already been demonstrated that shrimp have an RNAi pathway that can be utilized to regulate expression of specific genes by feeding sequence specific nucleic acid particles.  One research avenue currently being explored is focused on isolating and characterizing shrimp specific genes that are potentially involved in reproduction and fertility.  Once characterized, the natural shrimp RNAi pathway will be utilized to determine the functional role of isolated genes and the impact they have on reproductive fitness.

Source: The Rising Tide.  The Proceedings of the Special Session on Sustainable Shrimp Farming.  Edited by Drs. Craig L. Browdy and Darryl E. Jory.  Published by the World Aquaculture Society.  Advances Towards Genetic Protection in Shrimp: Protecting Elite Genotypes from Unlicensed Breeding.  Melony J. Sellars (CSIRO Food Futures National Research Flagship, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, 233 Middle Street, Cleveland, Queensland, Australia 4163, email melony.sellars@csiro.au).  Page 22.  2009.

Belgium

Fresh Maturation Diets

Abstract: In this study, two fresh maturation diets were tested on wild Penaeus monodon broodstock for one month during primary quarantine and for three months during secondary quarantine.  Diet-A was composed of 70.30% squid (Photololigo sp.), 7.66% marine worm (polychaetes), 7.94% oyster (Crassostrea sp.) and 14.10% pork liver; and diet-B was composed of 37.39% squid, 16.50% marine worm, 27.14% oyster and 18.98% pork liver.  Diet-B was formulation to resemble the ratios of arachidonic acid (ARA)/eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA/EPA) and n-3/n-6 fatty acids in the mature ovaries of wild P. monodon.  At the start of primary quarantine, the average weight of the shrimp allocated to the two diets was not significantly different (129.71 ± 2.96 grams for females and 87.88 ± 2.49 grams for males in the diet-A group and 131.74 ± 1.75 grams for females and 88.95 ± 2.05 grams for males in the diet-B group).

After secondary quarantine, the growth rate of the female shrimp receiving diet-B was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than the female shrimp fed diet-A (24.44 ± 4.98%, compared to 12.89a ± 3.24%).  Shrimp fed diet-B performed better than shrimp fed diet-A in terms of spawning frequency (85% versus 57%) and fecundity (458,796 ± 35,658 and 245,718 ± 34,736 eggs/spawn, respectively), but number of spawns, hatching rate, fertilization rate and metamorphosis rate of the nauplii into zoea did not differ between treatments (P > 0.05).

The success of diet-B in terms of spawning frequency, fecundity, fertilization rate and hatching rate indicates the importance of the ARA/EPA and DHA/EPA ratios in broodstock nutrition of giant tiger shrimp.  The two-step biosecure quarantine procedure was applicable for producing SPF shrimp.  The researchers achieved natural mating of P. monodon in small tanks (1.25 m² bottom area).

Source: Aquaculture.  A Fresh-Food Maturation Diet With an Adequate HUFA Composition For Broodstock Nutrition Studies in Black Tiger Shrimp Penaeus Monodon (Fabricius, 1798).  Nguyen Duy Hoa, Roeland Wouters, Mathieu Wille, Vu Thanh, Tran Kim Dong, Patrick Sorgeloos (patrick.sorgeloos@UGent.be) and Nguyen Van Hoa (Laboratory of Aquaculture and Artemia Reference Center, Ghent University, Belgium).  Volume 297, Issues 1-4, Pages 116-121, December 1, 2009.

Brazil

Ceará—A Blogger Reports

In Ceará, my home state, there is a rapidly growing shrimp-farming industry and a just as rapidly growing controversy over the environmental and health impact of shrimp farming.

I have been very wary of farmed shrimp.  It hasn’t been proved to me that shrimp farming is harmful to the ecology of Ceará, but at the same time, it hasn’t been proven to me that it isn’t harmful.  Fortunately, Ceará also has an artisanal shrimp fishery, and at the portside fish market near my house, I can buy caught-at-sea shrimp, at a decent price and with excellent quality and freshness.  I think I’ll stick to these shrimps when I’m cooking at home for the foreseeable future.

Source: Flavors of Brazil.  Shrimp Farming in Ceará—A Controversy.  Posted by James.  October 28, 2009.

China

Hairy Crabs

In Hong Kong, sales of hairy crabs, a local delicacy, have surged as wealthy residents become more confident about the recovery in international financial markets.  Hairy crabs, which can sell for up to $100 dollars each in the city’s restaurants, are seen as an economic barometer.  In good years, about half a million hairy crabs are sold when they are in season from October to December.  Sales of hairy crabs dropped about 20 percent in 2008 when USA investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed at the start of the crab season.  “The resulting crash in the stock market meant many customers cancelled their tables or ordered cheaper crabs,” said, Cheung Wing-kai, manager of a popular crab eatery in Hong Kong.

With a revival in stock and home prices and optimism about the economic recovery, Cheung said sales are back to the volumes seen in the boom year of 2007, adding that steamed crabs with roe and a dash of vinegar are popular with brokers and their clients.

Hairy crabs are imported from the freshwater lakes around Wuxi near Shanghai in mainland China.  It takes about 18 months for the crabs to grow to around 250 grams, the size that attracts the best price.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Booming Hairy Crab Sales at up to $100 Each a Signal Hong Kong Economy Is Recovering.  Ken Coons (phone 1-781-861-1441, email kencoons@seafood.com).  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 1-781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  October 27, 2009.

Ecuador

AQUANOTAS—Get Your Shrimp Farming News in Spanish

AQUANOTAS is the newsletter of Ecuador’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (La Cámara Nacional de Acuacultura, CNA).  Each new issue of AQUANOTAS is announced on CNA’s website.  When available, the newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.  It contains information that you’re not likely to get elsewhere, like nauplii and postlarvae prices, Artemia prices, and prices for diesel fuel and pond fertilizers.  It also contains historical data on Ecuadorian shrimp production, news reports on shrimp farming in Latin America, and, in the most recent issue, a long report on the developing El Niño.

Source: AQUANOTAS [Una Ventana de la Industria Acuicola Ecuatoriana, Publication do la Cámara Nacional de Acuacultura].  Editor Jorge Tejada F. (cna@cna-ecuador.com).  Issue #311.  October 26, 2009.

Honduras

The Marine Farms Group

Of the 16,000 hectares of shrimp ponds in Honduras, The Marine Farms Group operates 6,100 hectares of them.  Napoleon Araujo, operations manager at Marine Farms, said, “We’re producing about 25 million pounds of whole shrimp a year, and now we are in the high stage in a production cycle from August to October.”  Marine Farms employs 1,500 people at its processing plant in San Lorenzo, where the product is packaged—whole, peeled or cooked—for export.

Executives at the National Aquaculture Association of Honduras (ANDAH) and the staff at Marine Farms said the USA financial crisis has not had a major impact on the shrimp farming industry because 80% of Honduras’s shrimp exports go to the European market.  The remaining 20% go to the USA.  Similarly, the political crisis in Honduras has had little effect on the shrimp farming industry.

In 2009, the shrimp farming industry expects to export over 53 million pounds of shrimp, worth $150 million, an increase of 25% over 2008.  Ricardo Gomez, general manager of ANDHA, said 26 million pounds of shrimp were exported through August 2009.  He thinks that figure will double by the end of the year because the last four months of the year are the best months for shrimp exports.

Source: Boletin Informativo (Ecuador’s Cámara Nacional de Acuacultura).  Editor, Jorge Tejada (jtejada@cna-ecuador.com).  Camaroneras Proyectan Cierre del Año.  October 27, 2009.

Indonesia

Shrimp Farmers Want to End Imports

On October 28, 2009, shrimp farmers and academics protested against the government’s policy of allowing shrimp imports to fill the gap in production from the farms.  At a press conference, more than 250 participants from Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Java denounced the impact the imports were having on the local shrimp industry.  Indonesian Aquaculture Community (MAI) secretary-general Agung Sudaryono said the import policy would “devastate” the local industry.  “Imports will only kill the producers and incapacitate the researchers,” Agung said.

Agus, a shrimp farmer from Lampung Province, Sumatra, said it would be better if the government focused more on developing shrimp farms than rolling out “controversial policies” on shrimp imports.  Agus added the government should also help shrimp producers get easier access to loans, pointing out that banks were reluctant to lend because the business was considered risky.

Source: The Jakarta Post.  Shrimp Producers, Researchers Demand End to Imports.  Slamet Susanto.  October 29, 2009.

Indonesia

High Shrimp Feed Prices Hurt Competitiveness

Despite a significant decline in shrimp feed prices over the past year, relatively high prices are still making Indonesian shrimp less competitive on international markets.  Iwan Sutanto, chairman of the Shrimp Club of Indonesia, a farmers’ association, said the domestic price of feed, currently $1.04 a kilogram, was about 15 percent higher than prices on the international markets.  “We don’t understand why the feed prices are still high because the rupiah has strengthened against the USA dollar over the last few months,” he said, on October 28, 2009.

Most shrimp feed is locally produced, but about 40 percent of the ingredients used to make it—fish meal, corn meal and soybean flour—are sourced internationally, mostly from Chile and Peru, and currency fluctuations can have a major impact on shrimp feed prices.

Shrimp feed accounts for about half of the shrimp farmers’ total costs, Iwan said, adding that the government needed to solve the problem before producers suffered further losses.  “If feed prices were reduced, Indonesian shrimp would become more competitive,” he said.  Previously, Iwan asked the government to reduce the five percent import tariff on shrimp feed ingredients, but his request was declined.

FX Sudirman, the chairman of the Indonesian Feedmills Association, acknowledged that shrimp farmers were hurt by the high prices for feed, but said local feed producers were also struggling because of the high costs of imported ingredients, which cut into their profit margins.  He noted, however, that the price of shrimp feed was actually 20 percent lower than a year ago.

Source: Jakarta Globe.  Feed Prices a Big Deal, Say Indonesian Shrimp Farmers.  Arti Ekawati.  October 29, 2009.

Malaysia

Agrobest

Agrobest, owned by Maruha Nichiro Holdings of Japan, produced 7,000 metric tons of Penaeus vannamei in 2009.  Large shrimp (21/25s and 26/30s) accounted for 65% of the P. vannamei production.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Malaysia’s Agrobest Expands “Perfect Black” Vannamei Shrimp Production to 7,000 Tons.  Ken Coons (phone 1-781-861-1441, email kencoons@seafood.com).  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 1-781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  October 27, 2009.

Malaysia

Freshwater Prawns

On the central east coast, in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Low Chong Ming, 43, ventured into freshwater prawn farming in 2000 by converting 16 unused fish ponds into prawn ponds with an investment of $48 thousand.  His company, YHL Aquaculture Enterprise, now has 35 ponds on a 20-hectare site that produces an estimated two to three tons of prawns a month.

Source: Bernama.com.  Turning Negeri Sembilan into Freshwater Prawn Hub.  Razali Pilus.  October 30, 2009.

Mexico

Genetic Diversity in Penaeus vannamei

Abstract: The Mexican shrimp farming industry is based on Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei broodstock that has been raised in captivity for more than ten years.  Because much of the original P. vannamei broodstock may have come from animals with similar genetic backgrounds, questions arise about inbreeding depression in the broodstock.

In this study, researchers evaluated the genetic composition and diversity of broodstock from six hatcheries in northwestern Mexico and estimated their inbreeding levels based on DNA microsatellite markers.  A total of 658 individuals were analyzed with six microsatellite loci.  Medium mean genetic diversity values (8.98 alleles per locus) and heterozygosity (0.57) were higher than anticipated.  There was significant variation in the genetic composition of broodstock from different hatcheries.  All the hatchery broodstock were significantly different from a wild population in the state of Sinaloa.  The most common alleles were the same in broodstock from all six hatcheries.  None of the hatchery stocks had uniquely distinctive alleles.  Broodstock management appears to have maintained genetic diversity because mean allele numbers were similar to the pooled values from a single hatchery sampled between 2000 and 2002.

With observed heterozygosity below expectations and a high mean inbreeding coefficient (26.5%), however, it would be timely to introduce cross breeding among hatcheries to reduce the risk of inbreeding depression.

Source: Aquaculture.  Genetic Diversity Status of White Shrimp Penaeus (Litopenaeus) Vannamei Broodstock in Mexico.  Ricardo Perez-Enriquez (rperez@cibnor.mx), Fidencio Hernández-Martíneza and Pedro Cruza (Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, S.C., CIBNOR, Mar Bermejo 195, Col. Playa Palo Santa Rita, La Paz, Baja California Sur 23090, Mexico).  Volume 297, Issues 1-4, Pages 44–50, December 1, 2009.

Taiwan

History—The Introduction of Penaeus vannamei in 1996

SPF P. vannamei broodstock were first shipped to Taiwan in 1996.  A hatchery near Kaohsiung had read about the success of SPF white shrimp in the USA and imported the broodstock.  In 1997, that hatchery was producing substantial quantities of PLs and distributing them throughout Taiwan.  By August 1997, farmers who stocked P. vannamei PLs had great harvests, and they made lots of money.  The news of the white shrimp jackpot reached the front page of the national newspaper.  Urgent demands for white shrimp broodstock deluged Hawaii shrimp farmers.  The insatiable Taiwan search for white shrimp broodstock spread worldwide, so P. vannamei broodstock were also imported from Latin America.  The Taiwan white shrimp craze continued at a fevered pitch through the winter and spring of 1998.

It was widely agreed that the introduction and success with SPF P. vannamei was the most exciting news in Taiwan shrimp farming since the collapse of the P. monodon industry in 1989.  Hatchery operators using High Health broodstock were producing 3-4 million nauplii per day from 200 pairs and getting 60-70% survival to PL-5.  Some Taiwan hatcheries developed an interesting alternative maturation system, using all-male and all-female maturing tanks.  [With this system, males and females are kept in separate tanks until they are ready to spawn, then just a few females are put in with the males, making it easier to spot and catch the mated females, which are larger than the males and only have one eyestalk.]  Now this method is used for P. vannamei nauplii production throughout Asia.

Taiwanese vannamei farmers were averaging 12 metric tons per hectare of 12-15 gram shrimp in 75-days.  Nearly all of the vannamei were marketed live in local markets.  Vannamei emerged as the leading cultured shrimp in Taiwan in 1999 with 15,000 metric tons of production, compared to 10,000 tons for P. monodon.

Source: The Rising Tide.  The Proceedings of the Special Session on Sustainable Shrimp Farming.  Edited by Drs. Craig L. Browdy and Darryl E. Jory.  Published by the World Aquaculture Society.  World Shrimp Farming Revolution: Industry Impact of Domestication, Breeding and Widespread Use of Specific Pathogen Free Penaeus vannamei.  James Wyban (High Health Aquaculture, Inc., 73-4460 Kaahumanu Highway #117, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740, USA, email jim.wyban@gmail.com, webpage http://www.spfgenetics.com).  Page 12.  2009.

United States

Minnesota—Aeration—Aire-02

Bob, I wanted to let you know that Panorama Acuicola Magazine has loaded our AIRE-O2 Comparison Videos on its website and YouTube.  They can be found at Panorama Acuicola’s website below or their YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/PanoramaAcuicola.

The comparison videos are in English and Spanish and split into two parts:

Aeration Comparison Video English Part 1

Aeration Comparison Video English Part 2

Aeration Comparison Video Spanish Part 1

Aeration Comparison Video Spanish Part 2

Information: Brian Cohen, Aeration Industries, 4100 Peavey Road, Chaska, Minnesota 55318, USA (phone +1-952-448-6789, email aiii@aireo2.com, webpage http://www.aireo2.com).

Source: Email to Shrimp News International from Brian Cohen on October 30, 2009.

United States

Somewhere—Rapping About Shrimp

For a three-minute video of a still picture of some beautifully barbequed shrimp accompanied by a rapper rapping about the wonderful taste of shrimp, click on the link in the Source below.

The chanting chorus goes something like this:

Shrimp on the Inside, Shrimp on the Outside

I Eat Shrimp All Day and All Night

Source: YouTube.  Dorrough Ice Cream Paint Job, Parody Shrimp.  May 11, 2009.

United States

Texas—Austwell Farm Gets Back into Shrimp Farming

Austwell Aqua Farm, which did not stock shrimp in 2008 and 2009, plans to begin stocking them again in 2010.  In 2006, Austwell stocked 17 million PLs in 84 acres of ponds and harvested 348,873 pounds with an average survival of 41.83%.  Currently, the farm has 33 ponds, each about five acres, for a total of 165 acres of ponds.  Owner Charles Chan has installed a $63,000 monitoring system that sends his computer important information on water quality variables.  When pond oxygen levels drop below preset levels, the computer automatically turns on the aeration equipment.

Information: Granvil Treece, Aquaculture Specialist, Texas A&M University, Sea Grant College Program, 2700 Earl Rudder Freeway South, Suite 1800, College Station, Texas 77845, USA (phone 1-979-845-7527, fax 1-979-845-7525, email g-treece@neo.tamu.edu, website http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu).

Information: Charles Chan, Austwell Aqua Farm, P.O. Box 125, Austwell, Texas 77950, USA (phone 1-361-286-3396).

Source: Emails from Granvil Treece on November 3, 2009.

United States

Texas—AgriLife Research Reports Record Shrimp Production

In one of their trials, Dr. Tzachi Samocha and his team at the Texas AgriLife Mariculture Research Laboratory in Corpus Christi produced almost ten kilograms (9.75) of western white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) per cubic meter of water, possibly setting a new world record in intensive shrimp productiion.  Somacha used Zeigler’s HI 35 feeds in the study.

Information: Tzachi Samocha, Ph.D., Professor, Regents Fellow, Texas AgriLife, AgriLife Research Mariculture Laboratory, 4301 Waldron Road, Corpus Christi, Texas 78418, USA (phone 1-361-937-2268, fax 1-253-390-6081, email tsamocha@ag.tamu.edu, webpage http://ccag.tamu.edu/FlourBluff/flour.htm).

Source: Emails from Tzachi Samocha on October 27-29, 2009.

United States

Texas—AgriLive Research Gets Grant

The Food and Drug Administration has awarded a grant to the Texas Agrilife Research Mariculture Laboratory in Port Aransas, Texas, to study residue levels in Penaeus vannamei that are fed feed treated with oxytetracycline.

Information: Tzachi Samocha, Ph.D., Professor, Regents Fellow, Texas AgriLife, AgriLife Research Mariculture Laboratory, 4301 Waldron Road, Corpus Christi, Texas 78418, USA (phone 1-361-937-2268, fax 1-253-390-6081, email tsamocha@ag.tamu.edu, webpage http://ccag.tamu.edu/FlourBluff/flour.htm).

Source: Aquacontacts Mail Group News (USDA).  From: Gary Jensen (gjensen@csrees.usda.gov).  FDA Announces Minor Use/Minor Species (MUMS) Grant Program Awards.  November 2, 2009.

Vietnam

Shrimp Export Revenues Forecast to Drop 20% in 2009

Tran Thien Hai, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), forecasts that shrimp exports will generate some $2.6 billion in export revenues in 2009, a decrease of 20 percent from 2008.

The Russian shrimp market has been open to Vietnam since March 2009, but, according to VASEP, it isn’t an easy market.  To date, only 39 Vietnamese enterprises have been recognized as meeting Russian requirements.

Meanwhile, beginning in January 2010, Vietnamese seafood exporters face a new barrier in the European Union.  To get their products into the EU, they must show a certificate of their own legitimacy and documents on the origins of their products.

Source: Vietnam Net Bridge.  Seafood Exporter Unable to Net Satisfactory Export Business.  October 29, 2009.

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