Aquaculture Practices and Management of Mud Crabs

Mud crab aquaculture encompasses a sequence of interconnected stages, beginning with the selection and conditioning of broodstock through to larval rearing, nursery culture and final grow-out. Broodstock management often involves induced maturation techniques—such as eyestalk ablation or hormonal treatments—to synchronise spawning and enhance egg quality. Larval rearing takes place in specialised hatcheries where precise control of water quality, temperature and salinity is essential for survival through successive zoea and megalopa stages. Following larval metamorphosis, crablets are transferred to nursery systems—either individual rearing units or communal tanks—with provision of suitable shelter and high-quality feeds (notably Artemia nauplii supplemented by formulated microbound diets) to maximise survival and uniform growth. In grow-out ponds or cages, stocking densities, feed formulation, and habitat structures (e.g. mangrove integration or artificial refuges) are adjusted to balance growth performance, feed efficiency and disease control. Key management challenges include minimising cannibalism, mitigating water-borne pathogens and coping with environmental fluctuations, particularly temperature and salinity shifts. Recent advances emphasise monosex seed production to improve yield consistency, the use of integrated multi-trophic approaches to enhance ecological sustainability, and socio-economic models that support small-scale producers through microfinance and capacity building. Together, these practices underpin the global significance of mud crab culture as a tool for food security and coastal livelihoods.

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Aquaculture Practices and Management of Mud Crabs publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in aquaculture practices and management of mud crabs across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Broodstock: Mature crabs maintained for the purpose of spawning and egg production.

Hatchery: A controlled facility for breeding, larval rearing and early juvenile culture.

Megalopa: A transitional larval stage of mud crab between zoea and juvenile forms.

Crablet: Early juvenile crab stage following metamorphosis from megalopa, used in nursery culture.

Nursery: Intermediate rearing phase designed to improve survival and uniformity before grow-out.

Monosex seed: Juvenile crabs sorted by sex prior to grow-out to achieve uniform harvest and market specifications.

Soft-shell crab: Crab harvested immediately post-moult, characterised by a tender, unmineralised carapace.

References

1. Challenges and opportunities in achieving sustainable mud crab aquaculture in tropical coastal regions. Ocean & Coastal Management (2023).
2. Evaluation of the Feasibility of Harvest Optimisation of Soft-Shell Mud Crab (Scylla paramamosain) from the Perspective of Nutritional Values. Foods (2023).
3. Effects of different feeding regimes on larvae and crablets of purple mud crab, Scylla tranquebarica (Fabricius, 1798). Aquaculture Reports (2019).
4. A Review of the Nursery Culture of Mud Crabs, Genus Scylla: Current Progress and Future Directions. Animals (2021).
5. Development of ovarian maturations in orange mud crab, Scylla olivacea (Herbst, 1796) through induction of eyestalk ablation and methyl farnesoate. Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences (2019).