A bstract Marsupenaeus japonicus Bate is one of the most valuable cultured shrimp species in China and outdoor earthen pond farming is the most common method of culturing this organism. The need to increase soil usage effi ciency in aquaculture has been recognized and a great deal of research effort has been directed toward development of super-intensive farming systems. However, current research and development in this fi eld is largely devoted to Litopenaeus vannamei Boone, while to M. japonicus Bate it has been neglected. In this study, a layered farming system was designed and a 66-day study was conducted in M. japonicus Bate culture. The system comprised bracket and sand layers that divided a shrimp tank fi lled to a depth of 1.2 m into four water layers. Conventional tank culture(unlayered) was used as a control. The results show that survival rate, feed conversion effi ciency and production of M. japonicus Bate in the layered farming system were 68%, 18%, and 0.59 kg/m 2, respectively, all of which are signifi cantly higher than in the unlayered farming system( P <0.01). These fi ndings confi rmed the possibility of using a layered system to culture M. japonicus Bate.
