Role of nutrition in broodstock management - Prawns

For successful hatchery production of prawn seed a steady supply of spawners of desired species of prawns at the proper time is a necessary prerequisite. The uncertainity of procuring spawners from the wild has stimulated worldwide interest in the efforts to induce prawns to mature under controlled conditions. A successful technology for inducing maturity and spawning of penaeid prawns has been developed at the Marine Prawn Hatchery Laboratory (MPHL) of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute by employing the method of unilateral eyestalk ablation. Using this technique many commercially important species of penaeid prawns (Penaeus monodon, Pehaeus indicus, Penaeus semisulcatus, Metapenaeus dobsoni, Metapenaeus monoceros and Parapenaeopsis stylifera) have been induced to mature and spawn dn captivity (Muthu and Laxminarayana, 1977, 1979, 1982; Laxminarayana and Sasidharan, 1983)