Experimental nursery culture of the mud crab Scylla paramamosain (Estampador) in China

• Main Authors: Ye, H. H., Tao, Y., Wang, G. Z., Lin, Q. W., Chen, X. L., Li, S. J., 王桂忠
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: RED SWAMP CRAYFISH; PROCAMBARUS-CLARKII; RELATIVE SIZE; SNOW CRAB; CANNIBALISM; COMPETITION; SURVIVAL; BEHAVIOR; SHELTER; LOBSTER; Snow crab
• Online Access: http://dspace.xmu.edu.cn/handle/2288/60631

National High Technology Research & Development Program of China [2006AA10A4060, 2002AA603013] For the improvement of nursery culture of the mud crab Scylla paramamosain, a special nursery facility was purposely designed and built. This facility consists of nursery ponds (areas of 20, 50, and 120 m(2), respectively) and a seed collecting pond connected to each nursery pond. There were 140 nursery facility units in operation for large-scale juvenile crab production. A series of experiments were carried out using the facility to investigate the effects of the age of megalopae, stocking density, and culture duration of both megalopae and first-stage crabs on the survival of megalopae and early juveniles of S. paramamosain. The results showed that when megalopae were stocked at a density between 3,000 and 5,000 ind m(-2) and reared to reach the first-stage crabs, a survival rate of up to 50% could be achieved. When the first-stage juvenile crabs were stocked at a density between 2,000 and 3,000 ind m(-2), their survival was more than 50% after 14 days of culture.