Broodstock management

The word broodstock usually means the female prawns especially in tropical fresh water
farms where adult prawns are available round the year. These adult (‘berried’ also called
ovigerous) females are kept in hatcheries for laying their eggs. Berried females should be
carefully selected. They should be healthy and active, well pigmented, with no missing
appendages or other damages, and loaded with large number of ripened eggs. With the
ripening of the eggs, the colour of the prawns changes from bright orange through brown to
finally greyish-brown just a few days (2 –3 days) before hatching. The number of females
required depends on the volume or capacity of the hatchery tank(s) to be stocked with larvae,
and also on the number of eggs being carried by each female. After spawning these spent
females are discarded or sold in the fish market. The berried females in the tropics can be
obtained round the year from prawn farms. They can also be collected from rivers, canals
and lakes in areas where they are indigenous (native). In the wild, berried females are most
abundant around the beginning of the rainy season. Collecting ovigerous females from the
wild often results in considerable egg loss during transport. In tropical conditions, about 50
berried females are needed for each larval cycle of a hatchery using a total larval pond
volume of 50 m3 (e.g. ten 5 m3 ponds) producing a total of 50, 0000 PL per cycle (assuming a
larval survival rate of 50% to metamorphosis). This is on the assumption that eggs produced
by each berried female can hatch into 20,000 viable stages-I larvae. When freshwater prawns
are introduced into an area where they are normally not found in the wild, great care must be
taken to follow national and international guidelines for introduction, including quarantine.

(PDF) Culture of freshwater prawn. Available from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230702548_Culture_of_freshwater_prawn [accessed
Sep 29 2018].
Mature females possessed fully developed and ripe ovaries which can be seen
through transparent carapace. The abdominal pleurae are bent slightly inwards and
the pleopods became slightly distended and arched out-ward to form an enlarged
brood chamber to accommodate large number of eggs being spawned during
breeding. The basal segments of the pleopods especially first four pairs were
elongated and have soft long setae, the ovigerous setae bear eggs.