In any aquaculture system, the major components are seed and feed. The same is true for Penaeus monodon nown locally as sugpo, lukon, pansat or by its trade/export name "black tiger". (THe present discussion will refer to P.monodon unless otherwise spicified). This paper is an attempt to give a state-of the art of prawn hatchery technology and wild fry collection inthe country. focus on technical and non-technical problems, and offer solutions and policy recommendations., First, a brief review of the natural and production cycles of sugpo. The life cycle of the sugpo stats with the spawning of the grvid femae in offshore water with an average of 500,000 eggs/spawning (Fig. 1). They hatch after 12-15 hours into first larval stage or nauplii, it takes another 10-12 days for them to pass through two more stages -- Protozoea and mysis. Only a small fraction of the larvae survive predator and vagaries of nature to metamorphose into thee postlarval stage. THe young postlarvae or fry move shorewards and start appearing in coastal waters on the 4th day of their postlarval ilf(PL₁₄). They continue migration towards the estuarine areas such as mangroves which serve as their nurseries or feeding grounds, growing to large juveniles, postjuveniles and subadults.^{1 Firsat mating of subadults occurs at 4-5 months of age in the inshore areas(Motoh 1981). Hwever ,it is only during or after migration back to the offshore areas that full maturation of the ovaries and first spawning take place at arround 10 months to complete the natural cycle. The bottom-dwelling p.monondon remain in the ocean up to a ripe age researching sizes of 5000 grams or more unless they die earlier of disease or predation. The larval rearing phase which starts spwaning of the ripe females to prodouction of the young postlarvae is the basic concern of the hatchery (Fig. 1b). Ho0wever,the young postlarvae (PL₅ PL₁₀) harvested from the hatchery tank are fragile and need to go a nursery phase, whether in tanks or earthen ponds. After 1-2 months in the nursery, the so-called juveniles (PL₃₅ PL₆₀) measuring the width of a matchstick are hardly enough to be stocked in extensive or semi-extensive grow-out ponds. Younger PL₁₅ PL₂₀ may be c\stocked in intensive ponds. After 3-6 months are harvested at merketable sizes of 30-80 grams.}