A new species of pisang shrimp, Penaeus symplex revealed by molecular DNA analyses, as candidate species for aquaculture in Indonesia

In Indonesia there are two species mainly farmed, these are Penaeus monodon and Litopenaeus vannamei. Due to disease outbreaks which were mainly caused by viruses, shrimp aquaculture is become a high risk, therefore is a need to find new species. Unknown species of shrimp named as udang pisang (Pisang shrimp) only found in Indonesian waters. In the present study, six species of shrimp available in Indonesia, those are Pisang shrimp (Penaeus sp.), P. monodon, P. merguensis, P. indicus, P. semisulcatus and L. vannamei were analysed by RAPD with two primers of 2AAM2 and AS15 to confirm their species. Preliminary trials on the culture of Pisang shrimp and P. monodon were carried out in earthen ponds to compare their growth. The results revealed that based on the gel banding pattern and molecules weight of DNA, Pisang shrimp genetically is different from other five species analyzed and morphology generally like P. monodon. The identity between Pisang shrimp and P. monodon was 92%, suggested the two species are different. Pisang shrimp is a new species named Penaeus symplex [14, 20] and has been validated. The growth of Pisang shrimp and P. monodon for 90 days of culture was comparable (19.891.71 g and 20.011.08 g). Therefore, Pisang shrimp has high potential for aquaculture diversification.