Shrimp Farm Upgrade Checklist
Most shrimp farm upgrades are decided by one question: what currently caps stocking density or survival? Adding density without lifting aeration, water exchange and treatment capacity moves risk, not output.
1. Aeration
Check installed kW per hectare against target biomass at peak feeding, and check distribution, not just totals — dead zones cause losses long before average dissolved oxygen looks wrong. Use the shrimp pond aeration calculator and the oxygen risk calculator.
2. Water treatment
Reservoirs, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection reduce disease pressure and stabilise the growing environment, which usually protects survival better than any single production item. Size it with the water treatment calculator.
3. Lining and pond structure
Where soil quality, erosion or biosecurity limit performance, lined intensive ponds change the operating model and the aeration requirement. Plan them as a system, not a surface — re-run the stocking density calculator against the new configuration.
4. Feeding control
Automatic or acoustic feeders reduce waste, improve FCR and lower the organic load the water treatment must handle. Quantify with the shrimp feed requirement calculator and the FCR cost impact calculator.
5. Nursery and biosecurity
Screened post-larvae, nursery raceways, disinfection points, vehicle and staff barriers, and backup power for aeration during outages. The shrimp survival profit calculator shows what each survival point is worth.
6. Turn the checklist into a scope
Document pond area, current aeration, target density, water exchange, disease history and target harvest size, and suppliers can quote something comparable — the approach in the supplier comparison guide. Check cost per kg first with the shrimp cost per kg calculator.
Local conditions matter: see shrimp farm equipment in Ecuador, Indonesia and shrimp hatchery equipment in Bangladesh. When the upgrade scope is set, start a reviewed RFQ.
Frequently asked questions
Guides, calculators and country pages for this topic
Use the guides for the decision framework, the calculators for indicative numbers, and the country pages for local scope and cost context. FishMatch reviews every request by hand before any supplier is approached — directory and country pages are for research, not automatic matching.
Guides
Calculators
Aquaculture planning benchmarks
| Figure | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| CAPEX — RAS | USD 9,000–14,000 per tonne/yr | Global baseline before country cost factor. |
| CAPEX — Ponds | USD 1,800–4,000 per tonne/yr | Lined or earthen ponds, excluding land. |
| CAPEX — Cages | USD 2,500–5,500 per tonne/yr | Cages, moorings, nets and service equipment. |
| CAPEX — Flow-through | USD 4,000–7,000 per tonne/yr | Raceways and water intake works. |
| Energy use | RAS ~6 kWh/kg; ponds ~1.2; flow-through ~1.5; cages ~0.3 | Per kg of fish produced. |
| Typical FCR | Trout 1.1; salmon 1.2; shrimp 1.4; tilapia 1.6; carp 1.8 | kg feed per kg growth; varies with feed and management. |
| Farm size where FishMatch reviews projects | From ~USD 250,000 total project value | Commercial fish and shrimp projects. |
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