• General Information
• Species
• Seed Production
• Grow-out Farming System
• Fattening in Cages
• Harvesting & Transporting
• Disease Management

General Information

Marine crustacean farming is dominated by the shrimp species followed by crab culture. In India, the exclusive marine production of shrimps is not in vogue. However, in recent past lobster has turned out to be a potential candidate for mariculture. India earned Rs. 71.56 crores through export of lobster, mostly to Southeast Asian countries and Japan during 2005-06. Like crab farming lobster culture can either be either “farming” or “fattening” operations. Farming is essentially a grow-out operation in which the juveniles are grown for several months until they attain marketable size. Fattening, of the other hand, refers to short duration culture of undersized lobsters to a specific acceptable size and hence command better price.

Farming is carried out under closed-cycle and controlled aquaculture. In the past land based farming of lobsters has been severely hampered due to the lack of suitable technology and production method and only cage culture were found profitable. However, even in cage farming there are several impediments affecting the economic profitability such as cannibalism, need of heated water, lack of high quality dry feed, high labour cost and high investment costs. Asian countries are the forerunners in lobster farming especially Philippines and Singapore. India’s contribution to marine crustacean culture in general and lobster farming in particular is meager, however there is immense potential for states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to take up lobster farming in a large way.