Title: Potential of commercial aquaculture of Mantis shrimp in China

This project plans to test the possibility of building a cost-efficient way to breeding and culture mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria in idle ponds and benefit the local communities in northern China, and the stable supply of mantis shrimp juveniles for successful aquaculture can also play a key role as a means of restoring and enhancing mantis shrimp stocks in future. In 2014, the breeding and rearing of mantis shrimp were conducted by ecosystem based management on ponds from March to October in Pikou, Liaoning Province, China. The wild-caught broodstock was artificial accelerated matured in the concrete tanks by feeding of polychaete Nereis succinea. The embryo development time was 30s days and larvae developed to post settlement mantis shrimp within 20 days at the salinity of 30-32 ‰ and temperature of 16-24 ℃ in ponds. The mysid Neomysis awatschensis was cultured as the best biofeed of larval mantis shrimp for its logistically and economically feasibility. 35.1 thousand larval mantis shrimp per square meter was evaluated in 2 m depth pond on 20 June. Pond culture of post settlement mantis shrimp is possible and they grow well. The aquaculture of mantis shrimp can be proved commercial by feeding low price stray fishes and clams. The mantis shrimp reached marketable size at September with the body length of 11.00 ± 0.97 cm (n=10).