Raising Shrimp at an Indiana indoor shrimp farm

My first visit to the RDM shrimp an Indiana farm was on May 13, 2021. The farm was located about 5 miles from the small city of Fowler, Indiana. I arrived at RDM Indoor Shrimp Farm and was able to find the location by seeing small sign on the side of the road.

The facility had several small buildings including a small gift shop, a couple small greenhouses, and couple small barns that housed the indoor shrimp operation. Met the co-owner Karlanea Brown and started tour with 2 other people.

My first visit to an indoor shrimp farm was on May 13, 2021. The farm was located about 5 miles from the small city of Fowler, Indiana. I arrived at RDM Shrimp Farm and was able to find the location by seeing small sign on the side of the road.

The facility had several small building including a small gift shop, a couple small greenhouse, and couple small barns that housed the indoor shrimp operation. Met the co-owner Karlanea Brown and started tour with 2 other people.

Karlanea started the tour by first stopping in the lab and went through the biosecurity steps which included cleaning our hands and warnings not to stick our hands in the tanks. While in the lab noticed that there was a set of water collection water for each tank and brushes so the individual tanks would not be cross contaminated.

We entered the main building where the shrimp farming operation began showed us the different tanks the holding tank , nursery tank and grow out tanks. She also mentioned her back-up generator required to keep water warm and pumps running

Karlanea began talking about the water in the tanks. She went on further talk about the biofloc system and using the same water in the tanks. By adjusting some of the feed for the shrimp, it help dissolve some of the solids in the water. The water in the grow out tank was a murky brown water and utilized a hand made aeration system.

Now the time we had been waiting for was to see the shrimp. She got a big net and scoop up a hand of beautiful clear shrimp not gray colored like other shrimp. The shrimp fluttered in the net and one jumped out on to the floor. The shrimp look quite healthy.

Karlanea talked about furnishing the Palmer House in Chicago with fresh live RDM shrimp. One of her favorite saying never freeze a live indoor shrimp that ruins the taste. She cooks the shrimp with heads on them as she claims give them extra flavor.

Karlanea mention that her survival rate for her indoor shrimp was over 90 percent. Unfortunately I forgot to ask about the density of the shrimp or the number of shrimp per tank. She showed some other fish like tipilia and oyster she was experimenting with in another grow out tank.

No shrimp to take home or taste after the tour was a real bummer. A local seafood restaurant serving RDM shrimp might do good there with some promotion or another indoor shrimp farm in the area could piggyback on her traffic as local traffic consumed a large portion of her indoor shrimp crop.