Improvements in larviculture of Crangon crangon as a step towards its commercial aquaculture

Abstract

The European brown shrimp, Crangon crangon, is a highly valued commercial species in Europe. These shrimp fisheries are characterized by strong seasonal variations in average landings. Attempts to ‘catch and hold’ wild adults in land‐based rearing systems have been proven to be very difficult, due to inadequate feed, slow growth and high mortality. In this study, we have optimized design and operation procedures of a small‐scale static larval rearing system for the culture of C. crangon larvae. Focus was on optimizing larval survival via water temperature, feed selection, feeding regime and density. This is the first report that shows that C. crangon larvae can be reared at high densities of 300 larvae L‐1 with high survival of 73.5 (± 5.4)% under laboratory conditions. In these systems, larvae can be fed exclusively Artemia nauplii according to a feeding regime which is adjusted based on major moulting events. Addition of microalgae may further increase survival by 10%. The information gathered during this research can be applied to further optimize larval development in either flow‐through or recirculation systems.

Exploration of the virome of the European brown shrimp (Crangon crangon)

“…The evaluation of Crangon crangon as an aquaculture target has been investigated in promising culture attempts [28]. The major challenge remains the high mortality during the grow-out phase.…”

Nutritional vulnerability of early zoeal stages of the ornamental shrimp Lysmata ankeri (Decapoda: Caridea)

“…However, a sustainable alternative to avoid the capture of ornamental species would be the culture of the target species (Palmtag, 2017; Chen et al ., 2019). Success in larviculture is particularly challenging since the early feeding of early larval stages appears to be the main bottleneck in commercial production of the culture of ornamental species (Danilowicz and Brown, 1992; Dhert et al ., 2001; Van Eynde et al ., 2019; Chen and Zeng, 2021; Groover et al ., 2021). In this sense, some characteristics of larval development make it difficult to produce on a commercial scale, such as an extended larval phase, with many larval stages, resulting in a prolonged time to reach the juvenile stage and high mortality in culture systems of fishes and crustaceans (Calado et al ., 2003a, 2003b).…”