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Chief Editor Overview

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Recently some farmers are starting to switch back to monodon, especially in India and some regions in Indonesia. This might be caused by the vanammei’s market condition, which is in a slump due to overflooding of production and the shrinking market size caused by global economic conditions. By switching to monodon, farmers are hoping to secure a different market than vannamei. However, we still don’t know if monodon will be an entirely different market or a substitute in a zero-sum market with vannamei. This is yet revealed until monodon is produced and supplied reliably.

To thrive and replace vannamei, monodon must reach enough volume to cater to market demand and do it consistently. This, however, is not easy since the shift needs to be supported by the whole supply chain. First, hatcheries need to start producing larvae for farmers to stock. But to do that, hatcheries need to have reliable and enough demand from farmers to make it economically viable. Next, feedmills need to start producing feed that helps optimize performance and production. Lastly, processors must dedicate some production lines to process this species specifically. All of these needs to happen together to support this emerging industry.

We may be at a turning point where vannamei will be replaced by another as the preferred species in shrimp aquaculture. It might be replaced by monodon, or it might be replaced by another species that we have never heard about. Regardless, aquaculture will keep evolving as time goes on, and we, as practitioners, must be ready to adapt to the change.

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Darmawan Chief Editor

Before vannamei gained popularity in Indonesia, every shrimp farmer cultivated Penaeus monodon (Black Tiger Shrimp). This shrimp farming trend started in the 1970s, and monodon has been and is still regarded as Indonesia’s main species. Monodon gained the spotlight in its development because it was one of the profitable export commodities before it collapsed due to diseases. However, in the end, the monodon industry couldn’t survive due to a massive decline in production. Luckily at that time, vannamei was able to replace monodon and cement its place in Indonesia’s shrimp industry.

Senior farm technician Mr. Djoko Subono shared his experience cultivating monodon in 1988 at Mlakasari Village, Cirebon West Java. According to Mr. Djoko, monodon farming was very easy at that time. He admitted that he only used simple methods, starting with drying the pond, sprinkling hydrated agricultural lime, using saponins to kill wild fishes, and filling the water using a water pump. After that, the pond is ready for stocking. “With a stocking density of 10 PLs/m2, the results were very gratifying at that time. It made a good profit and was easy to do at that time. Because of that, many people around Mlakasari Village began to join monodon farming,” he said.

In 1990, Mr. Djoko Subono, who graduated from the Faculty of Fisheries at Bogor Agricultural University, moved to Rawa Jitu in South Lampung to join one of the giant TIR (Tambak Inti Rakyat) ponds that cultivates monodon. Mr. Djoko previously applied a semi-intensive cultivation method in Mlakasari. But in Lampung, he must adapt to a more intensive pattern with a stocking density of up to 25 PLs/m2 in a pond area of 2,000 m2 and 40 PLs/m2 for a pond area of 5,000 m2. “The yield was excellent, the pond size was 2,000 m2, and it produced 1.5-2 tons, while the 4000 m2 ponds could reach 3.5-4 tons per pond,” he recalled.

Mr. Djoko said that until 1995 monodon farming arguably always succeeded and had always produced excellent harvests. However, in 1996 the disease began, and it started to reduce the productivity of monodon farming. It has yet recovered until now.

White Spot Disease

Senior farming practitioner Mr. Leonardo Bong Tiro witnessed the rise and collapse of monodon farming in Indonesia. The man, who is usually called as Mr. Bong, said that from 1996 until 2002, monodon farmers in Indonesia experienced problems with the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), which caused a decrease in pond productivity due to its high mortality rate.

However, according to Mr. Bong, in North Kalimantan, there are still monodon farmers who can achieve good results because they are applying low stocking density of 1 individual/m2 in huge ponds (around 5-10 ha per plot) and harvests every two and a half months. As for market demand, Mr. Bong explains that until now, around ten units of cold storage are still processing monodon.

According to Mr. Bong, alongside the WSSV virus problem, another factor that contributed to the collapse of monodon farming was that there were no significant improvements in monodon genetic development by the private sector or the government. He explained further that in late 2017, an attempt was conducted in Siddo village, Barru, South Sulawesi, to improve the genetics of monodon. However, research to enhance genetics was attempted in Indonesia and other research institutions in other countries, though unsuccessful. For example, Moana Technologies was one company that brought monodon broodstocks from the Indo-Pacific waters to a facility in Honolulu, Hawaii, for research. The company then “cleaned up” the progeny to ensure they were pathogens-free before the animals were brought to another facility in Big Island, Hawaii. The record shows that Moana Technologies in Hawaii required 15 years to produce