Crustaceans

The white shrimp is a subspecies of prawns and is widely found in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic area of North America. It is believed that the earliest shrimp fishery of the United States first concentrated on doing the nurturing of the white shrimp. The white shrimp can reach up to a length of 197 millimetres with females considered to be larger than the male species.

Its antennae go to three times its overall length. The body overall is white and blue in colour having a dash of pink in sides. Its pleopods are red in colour while telson and uropods green. The white shrimp is an omnivore and mostly feeds on the seagrass Vallisneria Americana and detritus. It is also a prey to many species of fishes like the red drum and the turtles.

Fishing for these shrimps has been happening at the Atlantic coast since a long time now. The tricks of the trade were even exchanged with the European settlers. In fact, the harvesting if these shrimps started fully in 1950 and every month the catch is collected in the Gulf of Mexico. The spring rains flush these shrimps into the ocean and this is when they start migrating towards warm waters.

The pink shrimp also goes by the name speckled shrimp and brown shrimp. This shrimp is native to Indo west Pacific region from Durban to Red sea and even areas around India. Nowadays you can even find it in the Mediterranean region and the Suez Canal. In fact by doing that it has unknowingly reduced the population of the native species of shrimp of this area.

You can find the pink shrimp normally till depths of 10 meter to 30 meters. You would find them in sandy or brackish waters. The adult pink shrimp is pale grey in colour and has brown spots on its surface. They can maximum grow up to a size of 15 cm for males and 20 cm in the females. For the males, there is also the presence of a prominent curved spine.

Though the maximum weight recorded for the prawns is 170 grams the average weight that they can boast of lies in the range if 30 grams. The pink shrimp breeds continuously and its spawning season vary according to multiple factors. In India, their spawning seasons range from December to April and August to September. The pink shrimp is considered very important in coastal areas of Africa and countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Israel and Egypt.

Also known as the green tiger prawn the flower shrimp is a very important species of prawn. It has a light brown body that has a greenish tint and has yellow tansvers bands across the back of the carapace; its abdomen is banded with brownish grey and yellow transverse bands. And the antennae are banded yellow and brown.

The maximum length the flower shrimp can achieve is up to 180 mm for males and 228 mm for females. Its weight can reach an average of around 130 kgs. Flower shrimps usually have more of an Indopacific distribution inhabiting areas like eastern Africa and the Red Sea east to Indonesia and northern Australia. As a migrant, it has even made a way into areas like the Mediterranean region and the Suez Canal.

In India, the species is not considered a very important one. Though in Madagascar, Red Sea and Africa it may be of moderately important. Also in India, the species is avidly used for the nurturing of other species of prawns in the Ganges delta. Aquaculture of this particular species is also being conducted in regions of Taiwan and Thailand. Flower shrimps caught in Pakistan are sued to make shrimp meat and paste.