Abstract: This study was initiated to assess the feasibility of parentage determination in aquaculture populations for Chineseshrimp ( Fenneropenaeus chinensis). Under different scenarios both simulation and reality, microsatellite markers were used to as-sign parentage to offspring. Simulations based on allele frequency data fromthe population of Chinese shrimp demonstrated that atleast 4 loci were required to assign over 95 % of progeny. When marker data fromfive loci were combined, the assignment success of progeny to their true parental couple increased to 9219 % in parentage identification with known parental and filial information. Out of 215 offspring, 9017 % was assigned to their parental pairs exclusively in mixed families groups. This studyshowed that the pedigree of progeny in mixed families could be satisfactorily determined using as few as five microsatellite markerseven though the shrimp could have originated from 30 possible pairs. Discrepancies between the simulations and real data setswere considered to be largely due to the mismatches caused by scoring errors at microsatellite loci. Analysis for the value of LODwould reduce the error occurred in parentage determination on Chinese shrimp. Based on these results, it was concluded that theuse of a number of microsatellite markers represented a realistic and effective alternative to physical tagging in a selection programand it allowed the identification of parental effects on offspring performances from the early life stages.