Shellfish, that is.

"These are giant Malaysian prawns that are specific to freshwater," said Ron Pigue, co-owner of Delta Crawfish and Shrimp near Paragould. "This is our first harvest and so far, we're pretty pleased."

Pigue said the freshwater shrimp industry is relatively new to U.S. markets, but the chance to generate a quality, locally raised product for area consumers who struggle to find fresh shellfish proved to be too powerful to pass up. A former row-crop farmer, Pigue rolled marginal acreage into an aquaculture business that both he and his wife, Tracy, hope will pay off in big dividends.

The Pigue's stocked five ponds southeast of Paragould with loads of 1-inch juveniles in June, purchased from a Mississippi vendor that spawns the shrimp using scientific methods, Ron Pigue said.

The farmer-turned-aquaculturist said that in the wild, the adult prawns thrive in freshwater. He explained their spawning instinct drives the shrimp from their freshwater habitats to places where saltwater mixes with freshwater, which creates a brackish-water environment. After the adults spawn in the brackish water, their offspring make their way back to freshwater locales, he said.

Vendors who raise the shrimp under controlled conditions must replicate the process to induce spawning, Ron Pigue said.

"The shrimp start out in freshwater," he said. "Then the water's salinity must be increased until the female produces eggs and they hatch out.

"Then the salinity is slowly decreased over a 25-day period until the shrimp are existing in freshwater," he added. "That's when we bought them, at the 1-inch size."
He added that under normal conditions, spring stocking would have commenced in May.

"But we had a late spring this year," he said. "The water temperature was too cold for them, so we had to wait until the temperatures increased before we could get going."

The weather problems the family experienced in initial stocking were nearly mirrored when the time to collect the shrimp drew near, Ron Pigue said. Due to a cold front forecast to roll into the area Tuesday, their scheduled harvest was pushed forward, he noted.

"Normally, the season runs from stocking in May to an October harvest," he said. "Because of this projected cold snap, we had to move our time table up some.

"We've found this to be an expensive, high-risk, management-intensive proposition," Pigue added. "We continue to gather information that may help us along on a daily basis."

The Pigue's charted the shrimp's growth weekly, as well as water conditions such as ammonia, nitrite and pH levels. Temperature changes and oxygen content in the ponds were recorded as well.

Although the prawns can withstand variations from acidic to alkaline on the pH scale, Ron Pigue said his yield in one pond dropped due to high alkalinity.

"We lost some when that happened," he said. "Also, an algae bloom posed a problem for us because it drove the pH sky-high.

"Algae occurs naturally when heat and sunlight together reach a certain point," he continued. "We added a chemical dye that served as a shading color. That prevented sunlight from reaching as deep into the water as it possibly could, and prevented a potentially disastrous algae bloom. But the first of June, we lost all the shrimp in three ponds and had to restock."