Aquaponics with shrimp

In another thread I brought up the possibility of using freshwater shrimp in an aquaponic system. Rather than hijack that thread further I thought a new thread might be in order.

The main reason I thought about shrimp is they are tasty. These are the same shrimp bought in stores. Pawn is probably a more proper term.

I spoke with Craig Upstrom at Aquaculture of Texas. Very nice gentleman and willing to help. Craig grows young and sells them to commercial growers mostly but is willing to sell to backyard growers. Here are the data points as I understand them so far.

Minimum order: $50 for 1000 30 day old shrimp.
One box costs about $80 for FedEx. A box can hold up to 5000 shrimp.
Ideal water temperature is 76-88F. Same as tilapia.
They eat a pellet food and also the waste from other fish like tilapia.
Grow in freshwater, same as tilapia.
Shrimp are territorial so levels of netting is placed in the tank allowing for space.
They like a hard water which fits Phoenix. Our salt level would be OK too.

In a perfect world 1000 shrimp would grow to 100lbs of shrimp in 4 months. These are 10 shrimp to the pound type size. But that's the best case. 4/lb shrimp sell for $8/lb by growers when picked up at the pond.

Most commercial growers use ponds. So the bottom surface determines how many shrimp can survive. They kill each other if too close. Some growers add netting to provide more surface.

Craig told me a story of a lady back east who grew 200lbs of shrimp in a tank 8'x12' and 18" deep, about 1,000 gals. Craig was really surprised and impressed by this. He thinks the trick might be high water flow saying the shrimp had to hang on and therefore couldn't really fight.

I need to figure out how many shrimp per square foot is possible but it seems no system would be too small.

Craig also has the idea for regional nurseries. 30 day old shrimp can be grown in a small tank at 75-82F for 45-60 days (not sure if that is total age or from the 30 days). These can then be sold to other growers to finish for an additional 60-90 days. The price he suggests is 10 cents per shrimp for this age so still not too expensive. Because of the smaller tank it can be heated if needed. Here in Phoenix that would allow for 2 crops per year if starting with 60-90 day olds. Maybe 3 crops if solar water heating was used which isn't hard to do.

Craig did say shrimp in an aquaponic system is best with fish because shrimp don't produce enough waste for the plants because they can't be grown in the same high density as fish. But the shrimp were good at using waste and breaking down waste from the fish, uneaten food, etc.. They can also be grown under floating beds.

Harvest seems easy and straight forward. In mud ponds they move the shrimp into a fresh clean water tank for 30 minutes to remove the taste of mud and algae. Not sure if that would be needed in an aquaponic system. Then they go into an ice water tank where apparently they die very fast, on contact they say. Seems humane. There to the pan or freezer.

All in all seems pretty simple.

Has anyone heard of using shrimp in an aquaponic system? I couldn't really find much in a search.

Are others interested in growing shrimp?

Tags: aquaponics, fish

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Permalink Reply by Jon Ray on July 26, 2010 at 8:30pm

Duckweed can be used to add in the filteration process. You can then turn around and sell duckweed to those who grow Talapia or feed it to your own fish as a food source.

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Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on October 14, 2010 at 7:55pm

Hi! I'm just setting up my aquaponics system. I want to raise shrimp and tilapia also. Can you provide contact info for the shrimp guy? Pretty Please? :)

Here is my new set up needs a few things to be finished but you'll get the idea.

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Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on October 14, 2010 at 8:44pm

found the info:) Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Dave R. Mason on November 13, 2011 at 12:45am

Waterbug,

What ever happened with the freshwater prawn project?

I am also interested in prawns.

Please update..

Dave

Phoenix

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Permalink Reply by Angela on December 15, 2011 at 11:50pm

I am curious as to what happened too!

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Permalink Reply by Dave R. Mason on December 16, 2011 at 4:46am

Waterbug,

I suppose you decided not to grow the freshwater prawns (Shrimp) after all?

One of the only ways to fit them into an aquaponics grow system is to use cages in the tanks.

Since the prawns like the bottom of the tank, you can also grow tilapia in the same tank.

You were correct that Prawns are highly territorial - which is why the aquaculture prawn farms use netting (baffles) to essentially mark territories... In Thailand there is a few growers who are actually using cages (I understand that there is also at least one farm in Florida using cages as well - but haven't been able to track it's source down).

I agree with you assessment that "Prawns are tasty little critters", my wife and I both like them. Apparently the people in the grocery stores keep snatching them up as well (Over 90% of the large shrimp sold in the groceries are fresh water prawns. Shrimp is so fished out in the oceans/seas that they are essentially small - very few large shrimp are actually harvested from the seas.)

...

Dave

Phoenix, AZ

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Permalink Reply by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on December 17, 2011 at 5:14pm

My apolologies. Been a little busy and off this site. Probably need to catch up with a lot of folks particularly those good people on the east side of Phoenix who gave me some tilapia some months ago. The preliminary experiment actually worked. Just working on how to properly release the information. In the mean time, I will be teaching my next backyard intro to aquaponics overview class on December 21, 2011, 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. The location is the Home Grown Hydroponics Store at Broadway Rd and McClintock in Tempe Arizona. Here is the URL: http://www.homegrownhydro.com/classes.php

If you can make it, please rsvp at RSVP1@nxthorizon.com or for those on facebook, this link:

http://www.facebook.com/events/304262309607491/

Take care.

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Permalink Reply by Waterbug on December 20, 2011 at 12:23am

I lost track of this theory for some reason...Any who...yeah I'm kind of off the shrimp because they seem difficult to get in small amounts. But if someone else found a way I'd try some. Really sound like fun.

I'm still planning to grow Talapia, but at least a year before I'll have time to build a pond.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on December 20, 2011 at 9:09am

Regarding getting Macs in small amounts, I'm working on that. Will take a few months though.

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Permalink Reply by airtime on April 17, 2012 at 7:36pm

any new updates?

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Permalink Reply by Jon Ray on April 17, 2012 at 8:59pm

Very interesting thread. Don't think I read the entire thing last time I posted. I'm curious now how to introduce prawn into my own plans.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Mumme on June 22, 2012 at 2:15pm

I guess you were talking about Prawns when you were referring to Fresh water shrimp a couple of years ago when you started this thread. Would that be macrobrachium rosenbergii (may be mis spelled). I am working on putting together a project in St louis as we speak with both Prawns and Talipia in an aquaponic system in greenhouses. I would love to here what you guys have learned since you first started talking about this back in 2010. What is the largest size tanks you have used so far? and what about canabalism or lost ratio with the Fresh water prawns, are you using pumps to move the water and how deep or your indoor ponds???? thanks