The pacific white shrimp, , is becoming one of the most popular cultured species in the world due to the advantages of rapid growth, low demand for animal feed and a high survival rate at high density. The has wide adaptability to salinity and better resistance to stresses, and successfully cultured in the alkaline water in China. In order to further improve the effect of aquaculture in alkaline water for better effective utilization of alkaline water, we carried out genetic breeding experiment of in alkaline water environment. The comparative experiments among 61 families of on the body weight and the survival rates were carried out in alkaline water (AW) environment. After 50 days of culture test, the results showed that body weight and survival rates of different <0.01) in AW, and the mean and CV were 7.25 g and 26.61%, 36.26% and 46.82%, respectively. In the meantime, different growth performance was observed among different families AW. The absolute growth rate (AGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) were 0.09 g/d and 1.82%/d. And the body weight of family 5121 was biggest in AW environment, AGR and SGR is 0.16 g/d and 2.34%/d, 7.54% higher than the mean of the families, and 12.95% higher than that of the lowest. The survival rates results indicated that the difference of survival rates of families in AW was significant, which was 26.61%, and the survival rates of each families were ranged from 1.00% to 63.33% in AW. The survival rates of family 5032 was the highest in AW environment, which was 63.33%, 36.72% higher than the mean of the families, and 62.33% higher than that of the lowest. The results suggested that the family selection of in AW environment has great genetic improvement potentials, and may provide a good reference for the next phase of the tolerance to AW environment of family selection. Through continuous family selection, it is possible to develop more suitable breed of for alkaline water. This will be of great significance for effectively promoting the health culture of in the alkaline water.