Dossier:
D (2018-10-20)
WelfareCheck:
F (2024-10-23)
Advice:
F (2018-10-20)
Distribution
Profile status
Taxonomy
Growth
Swimming
Handling
Farming remarks
FishTalk
Penaeus vannamei is a shrimp species that naturally inhabits the eastern Pacific coast, including Mexico, Parita Gulf, Panama, and Peru. It is commonly cultured in brackish water or under low salinity conditions, being considered a promising species that has been introduced to many countries outside its native range, to western Atlantic coast and Asia, including China and Thailand. Aquaculture of this species has rapidly expanded worldwide since the early 2000s, with Southeast Asia as an important producer region.
Penaeus vannamei has some advantages for aquaculture, like its fast and good growth, a great tolerance to a wide range of water parameters and high stocking densities, high disease resistance, low protein requirements, and high survival rates. As a consequence, many countries are moving from Penaeus monodon to Penaeus vannamei as the main species in shrimp farming. Despite that, unnatural stocking densities, shallow tanks, absence of substrate in culture tanks, and the highly invasive practice of eyestalk ablation are major problems that hinder this species’ good welfare in aquaculture. Additionally, some important aspects of its natural behaviours and needs are still missing. Providing soft substrate that allows the expression of natural behaviours such as burrowing and grazing as well as reducing stocking densities are simple measures that should help improve both performance and welfare. Eyestalk ablation has been shown to be unnecessary to induce spawning and therefore should not be implemented.
For details see: WelfareCheck | farm (latest major release: 2024-10-23)
For recommendations see: Advice | farm (latest major release: 2018-10-20)
Related news
2024-01-18: New episodes of fair-fish database podcast programme
Series 17 of the FishTalk programme about species covered in the fair-fish database is out. You will now find the condensed information in audio snippets of about 3 min for Penaeus vannamei (Whiteleg shrimp), Esox lucius (Northern pike), and Perca fluviatilis (European perch) – species we recently added to the database or whose profile we updated. Alternatively, you may find the episodes over at FishEthoGroup which is the producer of the podcast programme. Enjoy!
2023-09-08: Update: Penaeus vannamei and new names coined
Penaeus vannamei (Whiteleg shrimp) is another one of the very early profiles that we launched in the database. In the update we now published, we incorporated more and also more recent literature that changed the scoring in 5 of the 10 criteria. Given great care and ideal conditions, P. vannamei may experience high welfare when it comes to reproduction and substrate. And with more research, further criteria might follow. Head over to find out what changed and enjoy the new formatting scheme we fitted the profile in.
While you are there, you might also notice some new names and words. We are in the middle of preparing the database for the catch addition, and so we gave some traditional names a good thinking. Instead of "Findings", the collection of habitat-, biology-, and welfare-related study summaries is now called "Dossier"; the "Recommendations" for practitioners are simply "Advice". Also, with the re-naming of the database (from FishEthoBase to fair-fish database), we now adjusted the name of the score: WelfareScore. Consequently, the "Short profile" is the "WelfareCheck" from now on. More changes will come soon!
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