Most of the shrimp imported to the United States come from shrimp farms in Ecuador. Other imports come from Mexico and Asia, which may or may not be farm-raised. One of the most colorful species farmed in Asia is the Black Tiger shrimp. The body is usually dark gray with black stripes and red feelers. Another version of the Black Tiger has blue stripes with yellow feelers.
Shrimp farming dates back several centuries.
Originating in Southeast Asia, farmers raised wild shrimp in tidal fishponds. The modern shrimp farm was born in the 1930s in Tokyo, Japan. A graduate of Tokyo University, Motosaku Fujinaga, successfully spawned the kuruma shrimp and succeeded in mass producing them. Although Japan never became a major shrimp farming nation, Fujinaga shared his work with the rest of the world through his published papers. In 1958, the U.S. Department of Interior s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries developed new hatchery techniques.