Complete Characteristics of Fresh and High Quality Shrimp

To meet the demands of the domestic and export markets, shrimp must be in good health and of high quality. Therefore, it is important for farmers to know the characteristics of healthy shrimp.

For those of you who don't know the characteristics of fresh and high-quality shrimp, reading this article is the right choice. 

Come on, read this article to the bottom!

Characteristics of Poor Quality Shrimp

The obstacle for shrimp farmers is shrimp disease which results in a decrease in the quality of the shrimp. Shrimp disease is considered as the biggest source of failure in shrimp farming. For this reason, farmers need to know the characteristics of sick shrimp so they can handle them early.

The following are the characteristics of sick shrimp:

1. Empty Stomach

When stricken with disease, shrimp appetite usually decreases or does not want to eat at all. As a result, the shrimp's stomach looks empty. An empty stomach is an early sign of disease in shrimp.

2. Shrimp tails don't bloom

Farmers need to see the movement of the shrimp to find out whether the shrimp are in good health or not. Sick shrimp will be limp and not actively moving. So weak, shrimp can not move its tail. 

3. Body Color and Muscle Tissue White Cloudy

Diseased shrimp usually experience discoloration until they look paler than healthy shrimp. Several diseases can also cause the shrimp's skin to harden and make the muscle tissue turn cloudy white. To find out the types of shrimp diseases, you can read the following article.

4. Pale Eyes and Slow Movement

If the shrimp's eyes look pale and their movements are slow, then you can be sure that the shrimp has a disease. In addition, if shrimp are more often on the surface of the pond and tend not to avoid light, then you should carry out an inspection immediately. To deal with shrimp that rise to the surface, you can read the following article.

5. There are white threads near the body

The white threads are the excrement from the shrimp. If the shrimp in your pond are surrounded by white threads, then the shrimp are infected with white droppings. This disease attacks the digestive system of shrimp and is deadly.

Characteristics of Good Quality Fresh Shrimp

Here are the characteristics of healthy shrimp:

1. Movement of Shrimp

The characteristics of healthy shrimp can be seen from their active movements. Generally, shrimp move by swimming in the water. Shrimp tend to use their body (especially the abdomen) in moving. Smooth legs help movement while swimming in the waters. 

2. Skin Color

Fresh shrimp have a bright and clean skin color. If it is seen that there are prawns that have a dull skin color, then they are not included in the group of commodities to be sold, because it will lower the selling price.

3. Members of the Body

Healthy shrimp limbs will look intact and there are no missing or damaged parts, from the head to the tip of the tail.

4. Color of the gills

The color of healthy shrimp gills is bright reddish. If there are shrimp with pale gills, they should be separated from those with bright gills so as not to contaminate healthy shrimp.

5. Intestine Full

Healthy shrimp can be seen from their full and unbroken intestines. This shows that the shrimp are in good health, both from digestion and absorption of nutrients in the feed.

Tips for Choosing Fresh Shrimp

How to choose fresh shrimp is actually quite simple because it can be seen from the head or color. However, if you are not used to it and have difficulty recognizing the characteristics of fresh shrimp, read these tips.

Here are tips on choosing fresh shrimp:

1. Fresh Smell

Fresh shrimp have a distinctive aroma and are not fishy. Avoid choosing prawns that smell bad because they are usually stored for a long time.

2. Chewy Meat Texture

Fresh prawns have a dense texture but are slightly chewy. Avoid shrimp with a soft texture because their quality has decreased so they release water and crumble easily when pressed.

3. The skin is still attached to the body

Characteristics of fresh shrimp can be seen from the skin that is still attached to the body. The skin is usually clear and has no black spots. 

4. The head is still attached to the body

Make sure the prawn head is still attached to the body. The color of fresh shrimp heads is black. If there is a reddish color, it should not be selected because usually the shrimp has been stored for a long time.

Shrimp Harvest Handling

Shrimp harvesting requires special techniques to help maintain good shrimp quality. It would be very unfortunate if the quality of the shrimp decreased or many died due to the shrimp handling process.

The following is a good and correct handling of shrimp harvest:

1. Spraying of harvested shrimp

Spraying activities are carried out to remove dirt and reduce putrefactive bacteria attached to the shrimp body. The following is a good and correct way of spraying shrimp:

• Make sure you use clean water when spraying the shrimp.
• Make sure the resulting water flow is strong so that it can clean the dirt attached to the shrimp's body.
• Make sure that the waste water after spraying does not get on other shrimp that are already clean so that there is no need to spray again.

2. Selection of Good Quality Shrimp

Shrimp sorting activities are carried out to obtain uniform shrimp sizes when sold to consumers. The following is a good and correct way of sorting shrimp:

• Classify shrimp based on size (large, medium, and small), type, and quality.
• Shrimp that are damaged or too small for harvest size can be separated to be used as shrimp flour or shrimp crackers.

3. Harvested Shrimp Packaging

Shrimp packaging activities need to be done carefully so that the shrimp remain intact. Here are the steps that can be taken for shrimp packaging:

• Place the shrimp in a watertight container. Arrangement of ice and shrimp must be arranged neatly to maintain the quality of the shrimp to keep it fresh.
• Do this process carefully so as not to cause physical damage to the shrimp.