LIFE
SHRIMP TRANSPORT
From: Bruno Decock globy10@yahoo.com
To: shrimp@yahoogroups.com
Date: 19 July 2004
QUESTION:
Does any of you have any experience with the life
transport of adult P. monodon?
Same procedure as with PL? Plastic bag with pure oxygen or does anybody has
a better method?
We are looking at a time period of 10 hours.
Bruno Decock
R&D - production manager
Espadon Marine Research
Pretoria,
South Africa
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COMMENTS 1:
It is pretty simple to transport adult P. monodon
broodstock. We have sent many animals from Fiji to varied destinations. Use
a multi perforated PVC pipe, about one foot long, capped both ends, then
insert your animal carefully into the tube (two or three inches diameter).
Place in bag with water, charcoal pellets, oxygenate (pure oxygen), about
half water, half air, seal firmly with rubber bands or castrator bands,
place entire bag in another outer plastic bag, place in polystyrene shipping
box with small bags of ice to maintain temperature at about 19°C, seal box
and ship pronto. The trick is to get temperature just where you want it. I
would suggest to experiment with one box, don't ship it, keep in your lab,
then open after 24 hours and you will see how temperature is and if your
animals survive. We have had no problems, great survival over 24 hour
period.
aforbes@mfmr.gov.na
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COMMENTS 2:
I doubt that species will have a major impact on your
procedure. You should check the WAS Journals for a paper by Dr. Ken
Johnson which I believed was titled Minimum Water Transport of Marine Shrimp
- late 80s or early 90s (P. vannamei). Basically it says that CO2 is
the limiting factor in transport - rather than NH3-4 as is generally
thought. Therefore use as little water as possible and as large a captive
atmosphere as possible - or a CO2 scrubbing compound. This also
explains why the old damp, cold, sawdust technique worked (which is also in
the P. japonicus literature). 10 hours should be no problem in any
case. Lose in water, however - you will want to secure each shrimp in
a net tube to prevent their movement from puncturing the bag or hurting
other shrimp
Durwood M. Dugger, Pres.
BCI, Inc.