Rearing European brown shrimp (Crangon crangon, Linnaeus 1758): a review on the current status and perspectives for aquaculture

Abstract

The European brown shrimp, Crangon crangon, is a highly valued commercial species fished in the north-eastern Atlantic, especially the North Sea. The shrimp fisheries are mainly coastal and exert high pressures on the local ecosystems, including estuaries. The culture of the species provides an alternative to supply a niche market (large live/fresh shrimps) in a sustainable manner. However, after more than a century of biological research on this species, there is still little knowledge on its optimal rearing conditions. C. crangon remains a difficult species to keep alive and healthy for an extended period of time in captivity. This review is based on a comprehensive literature search and reflects on the current status of experimental rearing techniques used for this species, identifies the problems that compromise the closing of the life cycle in captivity and provides examples on how these problem issues were solved in the culture of commercial shrimp species or other crustaceans. The ability to consistently produce highquality offspring could initiate the commercial production of this valuable shrimp. A further advantage of the ability to consistently produce high-quality offspring of this species would facilitate research on the development of new bioassays with this ecologically and economically important species in a wide variety of biochemical and physiological studies.

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

“…Historically, experiments with C. crangon larvae have not examined density as a factor (Delbare et al, ). The effect of individual and mass rearing (24–100 individuals L ‐1 ) was examined by Criales and Anger (); they concluded that high larval rearing densities resulted in a higher frequency of stunted forms, while mortality rates did not differ between individual and mass rearing.…”

“…Historically, experiments with C. crangon larvae have not examined density as a factor (Delbare et al, 2015). to a benthic lifestyle during metamorphosis to the post-larval stage (Campos & Van der Veer, 2009).…”

“…In the past few years, the demand for large live shrimps (>70 mm) has increased, with a 20–30% higher sales value than cooked brown shrimps. Rising demand and high commercial value may make this species an attractive candidate for aquaculture (Delbare, Cooreman, & Smagghe, ).…”

“…In general, aquaculture production is divided into three successive stages: seed production, nursery and grow out (Edwards & Demaine, ). In case of C. crangon , a great deal of information about each life phase is already available, but the life cycle has not yet been closed in captivity (Delbare et al, ), in part due to bottle necks in larviculture. We have applied a stepwise procedure to address typical problems related to tank type, temperature, feed and density.…”

“…In a commercial rearing system, larval density would need to be higher than previously tested levels of 100 larvae L ‐1 (Delbare et al, ). To our knowledge, no knowledge yet exists on maximum healthy stocking density of C. crangon larvae in commercial aquaculture setups.…”