Pond Studies on Penaeid Shrimp

Construction of a saltwater pond research station 13 miles south west of Palacios, Texas was completed in early 1969. The pond facilities consist of 21 clay bottom ponds with the following dimensions: six 1/4-acre, one l/3-acre, six l/2-acre, two 1-acre, four 2-acre, and two k-acre. Additional facilities include: laboratory building with wet and dry laboratory, maintenance and storage building, two residences for personnel, salt water pumping station with one 50 and two 7 l/2 horsepower turbines, boat harbor, fresh water well for salinity adjustments, 8-inch underground PVC fill lines, 6-inch drains, and a central concrete drainage canal. Electrial outlets are available to all ponds for aeriation and pumping operations. An evaporation pond is available for high salinity water. All ponds were constructed from existing Pleistocene clay soils, and clay dredged during construction of the boat harbor was used as fill material. All pond bottoms have a two percent slope to the concrete drain boxes where a damp board system, utilizing bevels and struts to lock 2 x 12 inch boards in place, was installed. Retainer screens (l/U-inch DuPont Vexar screen) were placed in front of the damp boards to prevent the escape of research animals. Ponds were filled with bay water pumped through PVC pipe and filtered through 52 mesh per inch seran bag filters installed at each pond inlet. The pond inlets are U-inch valves on all the l/^-acre ponds and 6-inch on all other size ponds. Each pond has a separate butterfly valve for water input regulation. When the damp board system is removed, ponds drain by gravity flow through 6-inch PVC outlets located at the bottom of the concrete drain box. This study was conducted in cooperation with the Department of Commerc