The correlation between market and
broodstock weight has not been established
in L. vannamei because of the difficulty in
monitoring individual shrimp growth in
ponds. External tags are inappropriate for
identifying individual sub-adult shrimp, because
they are shed after molting or interfere
with shrimp behavior (Yano et al.
1986). Until recently, internal tags have not
allowed monitoring of a large number of
individuals cultured in a common environment
(Yano et al. 1986; Godin et al. 1996).
However, new soft visible implant alphanumeric
tags allows researchers to monitor
individual shrimp growth in ponds (Arce et
al. 1999). The objective of this study was
to establish the correlation between market
weight and broodstock weight in L. vannamei
to determine the efficiency of indirectly
selecting for market weight from individual
broodstock shrimp.