Hatcheries management troubles, economic losses and environmental impacts by shrimp hatcheries on coastal Ecosystem, Mexico

Abstract

In Mexico, shrimp hatcheries have been developed as intensive monocultures, resulting in hatcheries 
management troubles, economic losses and environmental impact. Therefore, the aim of this work was 
compare to a traditional culture vs. a mixed culture. Shrimp juveniles were distributed in aquariums and 
ponds at the same density (51 shrimps/m2) but ponds, also had oysters and macroalgae. Shrimps in 
aquaria and ponds were feed with same food amount. Water was change each two days, but in ponds only 
20%. To compare traditional vs. mixed culture, shrimp’s growth, feed efficiency conversion and nutrients 
concentration, in aquariums and ponds were recorded. At experiment’s end, shrimps grew 35% more in 
ponds than aquariums; feed efficiency conversion was 0.68 units lower in ponds than aquariums, and NH4 
concentrations were close to 3 and 1 mg/L in aquariums and ponds respectively. The mean increase weight 
in oyster and macroalgae, was 4.04 and 19.3 g respectively. Therefore, mixed culture has many ecological 
and economic advantages over traditional culture. Therefore it is suggested that scaling this technology to 
commercial level, in addition to shrimps, oysters and macroalgae are produced, which could be used for 
human consumption and animal fodder respectively. Also, this model improves water quality and reduces 
the environmental impact.