Saline-alkaline water is relatively prevalent throughout China, where there are about 99.07 million hm² of saline-alkaline land and more than 30.67 million hm² of saline-alkaline waters. Because of the complex ion composition and high pH value, only a few bodies of saline-alkaline waters have been used to farm freshwater fish. Many of these ventures have been unsuccessful, and so the fish farms have fallen into a state of neglect. Consequently, it is important to find ways to develop and use saline-alkaline soil and water resources. In recent years, has become one of the most important and extensively farmed shrimp species. Because of its strong ability to adapt to harsh environmental conditions, including ammonia nitrogen and pH stresses, could be the ideal species for farming in saline-alkaline waters. Therefore, the aim of these experiments was to explore the effects of water carbonate alkalinity on the survival, growth, reproduction, and immune enzyme activities of E. carinicauda individuals (LC₅₀) was determined in an acute stress experiment. For the LC₅₀ experiment, individuals of were subjected to various levels of carbonate alkalinity (3.5, 5, 6.5 and 8 mmol/L) and then their growth and reproduction were evaluated. The LC₅₀ was 8.73 mmol/L at 96 h. With increasing carbonate alkalinity, the mortality rate, specific growth rate, spawning rate, egg incubation rate, ovarian maturation, and metamorphosis larval survival rate of decreased. In another set of experiments, the carbonate alkalinity levels were set to 5, 6.5, and 8 mmol/L, and the activities of acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, and superoxide dismutase were determined at 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h. The activities of all three enzymes in the gill and hepatopancreas of first increased and then decreased over time during carbonate-alkalinity stress. Our results indicated that can adapt to a highly alkaline environment by regulating the activity of immune enzymes. can be farmed in water with 3.5 mmol/L carbonate alkalinity, but cannot grow or develop normally in water with >5 mmol/L carbonate alkalinity. Therefore, water with high carbonate alkalinity must be treated to render it suitable for farming . This study provides a scientific basis for the development of aquaculture in saline-alkaline waters.