In industrial shrimp culture, it is necessary to control the flow velocity in the pond and the duration of the flow according to the flow resistance of the shrimp and in combination with the effect of the accumulation of pollutants. In this research, vertical circulation flume tank was used to measure the sustainable swimming time of Litopenaeus vannamei (3.62±0.50 g) under five flow velocity levels (20.3, 23.0, 30.2, 34.9 and 41.3 cm/s), and the time was taken as the index to assess its flow resistance at corresponding flow velocity. The results showed that at the same flow velocity, the sustainable swimming time varied significantly among the shrimps having similar external characteristics. The characterization parameter for the variation (coefficient of variation) increased and then decreased with the increasing flow velocity, peaking at 34.9cm/s. The relationship curve of cumulative fatigue percentage and swimming time indicated that for the high velocity cases (30.2, 34.9 and 41.3 cm/s), nearly 50% of the shrimps got fatigue within 10 min and could not swim anymore. The coefficient R2 for curving fitting showed that exponential function could express the relationship between average sustainable swimming time and flow velocity best. The findings in this research suggested that it is not only to take the average flow resistance of shrimp but also the variation of flow resistance among shrimps into consideration when performing the flow control in industrial culture. For the shrimp (3.62±0.50) g used in this research, the flow velocity in the pond should be controlled below 30.2 m/s, and the duration of the flow at corresponding flow velocity should be decided based on the relationship cure of cumulative fatigue percentage and swimming time.