Giant Freshwater Prawn

BatonRouge Bill

Craig Upstrum of Aquaculture of Texas called me back today and gave a lot of free advice on raising fresh water prawn intensively.
He seemed like a really nice fellow and so I asked him how he got feed to all the levels and he explained to me that the multi level mesh cages were open on the ends and the shrimp are free to swim about. He feed them sinking pellets and they would get their feed and swim back to one of the levels. He used 1/6" mesh for the post larval and juviniles and was planning on using something larger for the larger shrimp. His stocking densities were 1-1/2 to 2 square foot of bottom surface per shrimp. His pricing was $50 per thousand for post larval and 100 per thousand for 2 month juviniles.
http://www.aquacultureoftexas.com/tanks.htm

TCLynx

Cool, does your permit cover them as well as tilapia?

BatonRouge Bill

No, I would have to get another but not nearly as regulated, and only $16. With that bird netting idea could just set up in IBC's along the fence. His 30' tank with raised 4000 shrimp which = 200 lbs of shrimp. That is at least 3 or 4 x as much as I normally eat. I would have to do some calc's to figure how small of a tank I would need to get about 50 lbs. At 120 days they are at 20 count! Nice Big Butterfly Shrimp! I would guess you could thin them at 70 count for gumbo, and again at 40 count and let the rest grow out. The smaller the shrimp the more per square foot you can keep. Every time I think I have things figured out for my big greenhouse, a new and exciting prospect comes up!

Nocky

Man do you guys need a permit to fart as well :lol:

But them prawns are right down my alley, but unable to locate any here in OZ, will have to stick to the marron and yabbies

Chappo

Nocky , they are native to Aus ..... shouldn't be a big problem getting them.

RupertofOZ

Was a company trying to farm them up in the Ord AFAIK...

BatonRouge Bill

Nocky wrote:

Man do you guys need a permit to fart as well :lol:

But them prawns are right down my alley, but unable to locate any here in OZ, will have to stick to the marron and yabbies

It seems like it, but it's just Louisiana being precautious. With the exception of just a half dozen states tilapia and prawn would have a hard time establishing themselves in the wild. I know they are raised in Australia and Thailand and most of the asian countries. You may have to google a little but you should be able to find them.
That cage design should work well to increase the density of your yabbie/marron. The guys with the pool conversions would probably benifit if the ends were completely caged in.

Nocky

RupertofOZ wrote:

Was a company trying to farm them up in the Ord AFAIK...

Yes but the ord thing is run by Tafe and the Indigenous from memory and as yet aren't selling anything to the public but have seen shrimp, in fact I have some, but not freshwater prawns

Dufflight

You live close to the water. Big spot light and a net. :mrgreen:

Chappo

Import from Thailand ,, they have the male only ones , grow heaps faster

BatonRouge Bill

Chappo wrote:

Import from Thailand ,, they have the male only ones , grow heaps faster

Thats cool how they do that they surgericly sex change a male to female and the "female" only has super male offspring.

Chappo

EXACTLY ..... they only worked it out a year or so ago:)

RupertofOZ

BatonRouge Bill wrote:

Thats cool how they do that they surgericly sex change a male to female

Nip and tuck.... :mrgreen:

Chappo

Ever been to Thailand ..... ??? for beginners working out which are male and which are Female is a laugh to those more in the know.....LOL

As I stated ,, EXACTLY ,, change to Male ....., why would i lie ????

http://thailand.prd.go.th/thailand_illu ... p?s_id=305

Nocky

so where in Oz can you get them

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