Over the past two decades, shrimp aquaculture has grown enormously worldwide. At the same time, consumer awareness and concern for animal welfare is growing. Eyestalk ablation, used to stimulate reproduction in broodstock shrimp is most controversial, but the stunning and killing methods are equally criticised. In comparison to other reared species such as finfish, animal welfare assessments in shrimp aquaculture are still limited and under development. That is why the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) now published a freely available IGB Manual that provides an easy to handle morphological index to assess welfare and well-being in shrimp.