Polyculture of Fleshy Shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis and White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei with River Puffer Takifugu obscurus in Shrimp Ponds

Shrimp culture in Korea had been rapidly developed during 1990's and the production of farmed shrimp reached 3,268 mt from 2,605 ha in 2001. However the shrimp production decreased to 2,368 mt in 2004 because of the mass mortality due to outbreak of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). WSSV which is one of the most serious threats associated with cultured shrimp around the world has given the economic damages to shrimp culture industry every year since it was found from the shrimp ponds in the west coast of the South Korea in 1993. Various polyculture technologies of shrimp with shellfish, finfish or seaweeds have been implemented to reduce economic damages by mass mortalities of shrimp. Among them, the polyculture of shrimp with carnivorous fish can suppress or delay the viral outbreak of shrimp ponds because the fish may selectively eat the moribund shrimps infected by virus. To determine the selective predatory effect of river puffer Takifugu obscures on WSSV infected shrimp, postlarvae of Litopenaeus vannamei and Fenneropenaeus chinensis. One-year old river puffers were stocked to four earthen ponds of in surface area as followings: polyculture LvP, L. vannamei ()+puffer (); control Lv, L. vannamei (); polyculture FcP, F. chinensis ()+puffer (); control Fc, F. chinensis (). Ponds of control Fc and polyculture FcP had mass mortalities by WSSV outbreak on the and days of culture respectively. The shrimps of polyculture LvP and control Lv were harvested on the . Shrimp survival rates of polyculture LvP and control Lv were 32.4% and 18.2% respectively and shrimp productivity of polyculture LvP was 69.2% higher than that of control Lv. Concentration of nutrients (TAN, , ) was maintained within optimal ranges for shrimp growth although that of polyculture ponds showed at least two times higher than that of control ponds. The results suggest that polyculture of L. vannamei with river puffer is higher than monoculture in survival rate and productivity. In addition, F. chinensis should be carefully cultured because this species shows much higher susceptibility to WSSV than L. vannamei.