Prawn Farming At Home for Maximum Profits

A step by step guide for Prawn farming at home

Today, let us discuss the farming of prawn at home including the construction of prawn pond, disease control of prawns in the home pond.

Prawn Farming business is being popular and is also increasing more. Prawns are not only beneficial in the business sector but are also beneficial to us in several ways. Prawns are rich in minerals and vitamins, which can treat numbers of diseases, present in our healthy body making us sick or unhealthy.

Nutritional value of Prawns

1. Prawns are a rich source of Selenium that prevents the growth of cancer cells in the human body.
2. Like fish, they are also a rich source of Omega 3 Fatty acids which is good for heart and help in reducing cholesterol level and prevents heart diseases.
3. They are helpful for healthy boned and teeth because they are rich in calcium.
4. It contains vitamin E and so is good for the skin. And also it contains Vitamin B makes it a helpful food source for good memory and cardiac health.

Site selection for prawn farming:

Careful selection of a suitable site for Prawn farming is an essential prerequisite for the successful farming operation. The site selection plays an important role as the total management aspect of the farm ultimately depends on specific conditions of the site.

For starting a Prawn farming at home, the land is an essential need having sufficient size to raise the prawns in the pond.

Climatic conditions required for raising prawn

The warm climate is the most important factor affecting Prawn farming. Tropical and sub-tropical climates are most suitable when the culture period is too long while the warm temperate climate is appropriate where the culture period is short. Also other climatic conditions like rainfall, evaporation, sunlight, wind speed, etc. play a critical role.

Pond construction for Prawn farming at home

For starting the prawn farming, you have to construct a sufficient size pond so that prawns can grow well and you can obtain healthy and quality product from this farming plan to earn good returns. Note that your prepare pond should not have the depth of more than 4 feet and is also should have well designed such as square construction or circle construction.

The base of the prepared pond must have a clean surface along with soil pH, ranging from 7 to 8. Spray suitable disease resistant chemical fertilizers on the side surfaces of the pond to keep away the selected baby prawn from the disease in the pond.

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Also, an addition of cow dung manure helps increase the fertility and reproductive capacity in the pond and also enhances the growth of plants and planktons. Now, the pond must be filled up with clean water. Leave that filled for about 10 days, so that this commercial small creature can grow in the pond.

A well-designed pond for Prawn farming will facilitate the management of water exchange, harvesting of the product, waste collection and elimination, and feeding.

The shapes of the pond that are found to be effective for Prawn farming are rectangular, square and circular. A well-designed and sufficient size pond is one that would allow circulation of the water such that wastes will be accumulated at the center of the pond.

Planning and designing your Prawn farm

Most of the people use ponds to raise prawns. However, you can start your farm in your basement in tubs, containers, or in old swimming pools that you no longer use. Consider how much capital, time and resources you’re willing to use, and plan before starting Prawn farming.

Breeds selection

Breed selection in this farming is also an important task that decides the amount of profit in your Prawn farming. Growing fast-growing and high yielding prawn breed will yield more production at the last. Grow specific high yielding breed, depending on climate condition. Since growing breed which is fast growing in nature and requires minimum care and management is always useful in earning good returns.

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Water quality for prawn farming at home

• Check your water for any toxins, dissolved chemicals or substances or pathogens. If you are considering Prawn farming at home, your household supply water would probably be fine and, it would eliminate a lot of problems such as predators and pathogens.
• Stable pond conditions and good water quality are essential to maximizing survival and growth rates. Paddlewheels and aspirators are generally used for aeration. The aeration generates a current causing the sediments to accumulate in the center of the selected pond. This keeps a clean feeding area around the pond edge. As the quantity of prawns increases, the level of aeration required increases to keep the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. A minimum of one kilowatt of aeration is required for each tonne of prawns in the pond.
• Most Prawn ponds need aeration for the water to be oxygenated and to stay in top shape. A rotating wheel is the most general method of aeration, but a water fountain is also a useful and attractive way of aeration.
• Exchanging water controls the density of algal blooms and the level of ammonia in the ponds. Water exchange is minimized to help maintain stable water conditions.
• Wastewater is removed from the bottom of the pond and drained into sedimentation or treatment ponds before being released to the environment.

Feeding your Prawn:

Prawns are normally fed only once a day. They can eat a variety of pelleted or commercial foods. However, if the pond is ecologically balanced, they can eat several things growing in the pond like algae, larvae, plankton, etc.

Feed management plays a crucial role in prawn culture. Moreover, natural food is chosen over supplementary food. However, due to the lack of natural food and to increase the growth and quality of production supplementary food is used.

Supplementary food consist of agricultural and animal husbandry by-products along with locally available cheap feeds like broken rice, tapioca root, trash fish, vegetable and animal feeds mixed in adequate proportions. The feed is produced in pellet form, which must sink in water quickly and must be intact for at least a few hours till they are completely consumed by the prawns.

Food pellets are distributed uniformly on the surface of the pond or placed in wide containers set up at some points along the margin of the pond. The rate of feeding must depend on the age of the prawns.

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Prawns disease and their treatment:

Some diseases are observed in Prawn farming. Viral infected diseases are very common in this farming such as;

White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV),

Yellowhead Disease Virus (YHDV),

Taura Syndrome Virus (TSV),

Infectious Hypodermal and Haematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHHNV),

Vibrio harveyi, etc are some common diseases that observed in Prawn farming.

It is essential to prevent your pond from all these observed diseases to obtain higher yield and to keep the quality of the Prawns. However, maintaining water quality can avoid, all these observed diseases in Prawns.

How to harvest Prawns at home

The harvesting time of Prawn is mostly depended on the Prawn condition along with the market demand and price. They are collected with the help of cast net from the area of growing pond based on average weight and shape, size. At the harvesting stage, the soft shell is must be less than 5 % in the pond. This can be achieved by scheduled harvesting of the Prawns between two moultings. Molting can be recognized by the existence of exuviae in the growing pond. Partial harvesting can be done for removing larger prawns from the pond at regular intervals. For partial harvesting, nets are specially designed to capture only large prawns and exclude smaller ones in ponds.

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