Raising giant prawns? Avoid loss during harvest by figuring out the types of giant prawn disease.
Many love farming giant prawns as these typical prawns are less sensitive to the disease. However, the emergence of the disease slowly attacks the prawns as the intensification of freshwater prawn culture increases. As a result, the mass mortality of the giant prawns is unavoidable. To prevent some diseases that may attack the prawns, you better check out some types of giant prawn disease below.
1. Cramp Tail Syndrome
The first disease that may attack the giant prawns is cramp tail syndrome (CTS). This disease is related to nutritional or physiological factors. The causes of CTS are mostly about the environmental conditions, like high-temperature stress, mineral imbalances, toxins in the water, and vibriosis. Those conditions often make prawns stress. As a result, the cramped prawns tend to swim with an abnormal abdomen.
If you find about 5% of the grown-up prawns or more show the disease, you should ask for help from the experienced prawn farmers.
2. Vitamin Deficiency
Another giant prawn disease you need to figure out is vitamin deficiency. Vitamin deficiency will affect survival as well as the growth of giant prawns. When the diets lack vitamins and other minerals like acid, biotin, ascorbic acid, niacin, and thiamine, the prawns will have a poor appetite and suffer from anorexia. Furthermore, the grown-up giant prawns will develop black gill disease as well as the large and black walls of the abdomen.
3. Soft-shell Syndrome
Soft-shell syndrome often attacks the juveniles of giant prawns. This giant prawn disease happens because of the quality of feed given. The ingredients of the feed are less nutritious and contaminated with pesticides. Furthermore, inadequate feeding practices become the main cause of the soft-shell syndrome. The shells of the prawns will turn soft, thin, rough, wrinkled, and dark. If you don’t treat the disease soon, the prawns will grow slowly and cause death.
4. Aflatoxin Poisoning (Red Disease)
Aspergillus sp. is the common cause of contamination in prawn feeds. When this mold contaminates the diets, it will lead to aflatoxin poisoning in the food. The prawns will suffer from red discoloration.
Other symptoms of the red disease are slow growth and the body will become yellowish and turn to reddish discoloration with short streaks on the gills. Besides that, this red disease will also lead to gradual mortality and make you lose about 90% or more in three months.
5. White Tail Disease (WTD)
Whitetail disease (WTD), or also known as white muscle disease (WMD), attacks giant prawns. As Stain Virus or Macrobrachium rosenbergii Noda Virus (MrNV) is the cause of this disease, the symptoms of WTD are marked with pale and a whitish appearance on the abdominal area of the body of the larvae and post-larvae.
The white colors will appear in different segments of the abdomen and gradually spread to the anterior and posterior parts of the body. As a result, mass mortality happens and causes danger to the sustainability of giant prawn cultivation.
In conclusion, try to prevent the giant prawn disease by feeding the prawns with high-quality diets and taking care of the cleanliness of the pond. If the disease starts to attack, find out the ways to treat the disease as soon as possible.
Sources:
http://www.fao.org/fishery/affris/species-profiles/giant-tiger-prawn/nutritional-sdeficiencies/en/
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10864253.pdf