Production of the Pacific White Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, in High-Density Greenhouse-Enclosed Raceways Using Low Salinity Groundwater

Abstract

Two nursery trials and one grow-out culture trial with Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, were conducted at an inland farm near Gila Bend, Arizona, using low-salinity (1.8 to 2.6 ppt) ground-water. Trials were conducted in greenhouse-enclosed concrete raceways with bottom area of 97.5 m² and water volume of 147.6 m³. Excellent survival (98.1±12.9%), FCR (0.7:1), and yield (2.22±0.17 kg/m²) were obtained in a five-week nursery study with stocking density of about 20,000 postlarvae/m². In the grow-out trial, survival as high as 86% and a yield of 4.39 kg/m² of shrimp with a mean weight of 14.7 g were achieved in 107 days from an initial mean weight of 0.5 g. These trials indicate that the Pacific white shrimp can be raised at very high densities with good survival using low-salinity groundwater. Composition of the groundwater is reported.

Key Words:

• Pacific white shrimp
• Litopenaeus vannamei
• low-salinity groundwater
• nursery
• raceway
• grow-out
• high density