Development of Regional Freshwater Prawn Culture and Culture Potential of Native Macrobrachium Shrimps in Taiwan

Abstract

Since Macrobrachium rosenbergii was reproduced successfully in the 1970’s, it has been one of main freshwater aquaculture species in Taiwan and the production increased significantly from 1,300 MT in 1984 to 16,000 MT in 1991. Thereafter, production was maintained at around 6,000 to 10,000 MT with a current market price of NT$300/kg. Obviously, the aquaculture of this species faced some problems such as diseases, climate, inbreeding, low growth rate and the farmers’ capital operation and risk. As such, proper selection from the 40 native species with potential for aquaculture either for food and/or aquarium markets can be one of the solutions for enhancing the production of freshwater shrimps. In this chapter, we describe not only in the culture potential of giant freshwater shrimps in Taiwan, but also their reproduction, larval development and culture systems. Moreover, a native giant freshwater shrimp with body size similar to M. rosenbergii is also introduced in this paper for its potential for food and aquarium industries.