Mud Crab Aquaculture Technique for Farming

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If you want to know more about mud crab aquaculture, then you have come to the right place as the farming of this shellfish is starting to get popular. Especially around Asian region where there are huge demands for the mud crab which makes them has high value in the market. Furthermore the market for mud crab is actually quite large as there are various countries that actually importing this shellfish every year. And through the mud crab farming, the farmer is able to get foreign currency which means their profit will also be huge because of the currency exchange value.

Farming Technique on Mud Crab Aquaculture

There are various reasons why the mud crab aquaculture is actually very popular. First might be because the labor cost that is needed to do the aquaculture for this shellfish itself is very small compared to the other type of food fish aquaculture. Next is the growth rate of the mud crab which actually also very fast thus the farmer will be able to gain back their money faster compared to other type of aquaculture. And if the aquaculture is done in great management, then the profit that the farmer can get might even be higher than those provided from shrimp aquaculture. The best thing is that the aquaculture for mud crab can also be done in smaller scale, which means more opportunity for small farmer to gain profit. This might be the reason why there are a lot of people that want to do this aquaculture as their business.

If you want to do the mud crab aquaculture, then you need to be able to identify the mud crab that you will farm. The mud crab actually comes from Scylla genus, and usually there are 2 species that you can use for the aquaculture which are the green crab as well as the red claw. To identify those mud crabs are actually very easy since both of them are different. The green crab has bigger sizing which can reach around 22 centimeters for the width and around 2 kilograms for the weight. Then for the red claw, it has smaller sizing which can reach around 12.7 centimeters for the width and around 1.2 kilograms for the weight.

Both of those mud crabs are very suitable to be used on aquaculture since the demand for both mud crabs are also very high and their value is also as high. If you want to try doing the aquaculture by yourself then you need to know several mud crab aquaculture technique that you can use for the aquaculture. As there are two types of techniques that the farmer can use for the aquaculture which are the growing technique and the fattening technique. Now let us learn more about those techniques in more detailed explanation below as both of those techniques are actually a little bit different

On the growing mud crab aquaculture technique, the aquaculture will be using young mud crab. Then the mud crab will be nurture until it become bigger for some duration of time until they are suitable to be sold commercially. Usually the duration of time is around five months up to six months duration according to the facility and the condition of the pond. The mud crab will be nurtured inside pond which have various sizing from half hectare to two hectare in size. The pond should have great water exchange which usually takes advantage of the tidal wave. It should also have good boundaries which can be made using natural material or fence.

Actually this type of aquaculture technique is very suitable to be done using small size pond. That way, you can easily maintain the pond without having to do a lot of things which may take more labor hour. Furthermore, on the small pond, the boundaries can easily be made using fence which will be stronger. However, if your pond has larger size, then it is possible to use natural material for the boundaries. But remember to reinforce the boundaries with fence in the future since it will be deteriorate overtime.

On the fattening mud crab aquaculture technique, the aquaculture will be using mud crab that has soft shell. Then the mud crab will be nurture until the soft shell become hard for some duration of time until they are suitable to be sold commercially. You should know that the mud crab that has hard shell will also has higher price which may even reach four until five times higher price compared to the mud crab with soft shell. Furthermore this aquaculture technique will take shorter duration. Thus you will gain a lot of profit in shorter time by doing this aquaculture technique.

The mud crab will be nurtured inside pond which have around 0.25 hectare to 0.2 hectare with great tidal wave and the dept should be around 1 meter to 1.5 meter. The pond can be prepared to ensure that there is great quality lime as the foundation on the bottom of the pond. You can drain the pond for the preparation process then put bamboo mat on the bottom of the pond as well as fences on the boundaries. With these methods then the mud crab will not escape out of the pond since they usually dig their way out from the pond through the bottom of the pond. The mud crab aquaculture can also be done using compartment to ensure that the mud crab with different sizing will be separated. This is important to prevent the mud crab from attacking each other as there is also cannibalism going on in this crab.

Those are the techniques that you can use on the aquaculture of the crab. Both of those techniques can easily be done so you can start to do this aquaculture in smaller scale if necessary. Not to worry as the mud crab aquaculture profit will also be high even though the scale of your business is actually quite small. It is a great business for you to start and try as the profit is high.