What do crab seedlings eat and how are they raised? A detailed guide to rearing methods

Everyone has a seafood dream; it can be said that when it comes to seafood, there is no one who does not love it. In our daily lives, the most common seafood ingredients are lobster and crab. The demand for crabs in the market has increased year by year, which has also made crab farming a new hotspot in the aquaculture industry. Crab farming starts from seedlings, so it is very necessary to master the relevant rearing methods.

What do small crab seedlings eat

1. Natural bait

Any organism that crabs like to eat and that grows naturally in water or on land is called natural bait. Natural bait mainly includes phytoplankton, aquatic plants, benthic animals, and terrestrial animals and plants.

2. Artificial animal-based bait

Artificial animal-based bait mainly includes river snails, small clams, freshwater mussels, silkworm pupae, yellow mealworms, earthworms, small miscellaneous fish, fly maggots, and livestock and poultry internal organs.

3. Artificial plant-based bait

Artificial plant-based bait mainly includes soybeans, soybean cake, rapeseed cake, cottonseed cake, wheat, rice bran, okara, distillers grains, sauce residue, peanut cake, etc.

How to raise crab seedlings

1. Understand the crab seedling cultivation process

Before purchasing crab seedlings, farmers should first understand the entire production process of the crab seedling farm, mainly including: parent crab specifications, feed use, cultivation cycle, etc. The parent crabs used for breeding crab seedlings should preferably come from large natural lake water bodies, and female and male crabs should come from different water areas to avoid inbreeding. Parent crab specifications: each female crab should be no less than 125 grams, and each male crab no less than 150 grams.

2. Do a good job of identifying crab seedling quality

High-quality crab seedlings have strong physiques, uniform specifications, phototaxis, ferocious feeding, and strong upstream swimming ability. When handled, the crab seedlings crawl vigorously, and they react quickly when blown on. Pick up a small number of crab seedlings by hand, shake off the water, gently hold them into a ball, and they will immediately scatter after releasing your hand. Poor-quality crab seedlings have empty stomachs and no food, poor swimming ability, are likely to move on the bottom layer of the water body, and when grasped by hand are likely to form a ball and are not easy to scatter.

3. Reasonable farming density

Maintaining a reasonable farming density is beneficial both for fully giving play to the pond's productivity and for improving crab yield, specifications, and economic benefits. If one-sidedly pursues yield and increases farming density, it will increase the difficulty of farming management, and crab seedlings will also kill each other over living space. The large amount of residual bait and excrement produced by high-density farming will also spoil water quality and further shrink the living space of crab seedlings.

4. Thorough detoxification

Residues from pond clearing, wild fish eradication, and other drugs, as well as pollution from various toxins and chemical wastewater in the pond, can directly affect the survival rate of crab seedlings, and in severe cases can cause crab seedlings to burrow, come ashore, or even die. Therefore, thorough detoxification is the top priority, and it is recommended about 7 days before releasing the seedlings.

The current development status of the crab farming industry

1. River crab is the most important freshwater crab species in China. Its meat is tender, its taste is delicious, and it is extremely rich in nutrition. Because river crab has strong adaptability and a wide farming range, the farming scale has increased rapidly in recent years, bringing good economic benefits to farmers.

2. The scale of river crab farming is relatively large, mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, and other places, while other places are also stepping up efforts to expand the farming scale. Along with the rapid increase in output, the farming risks of river crab are also continuously increasing. In recent years, large fluctuations have appeared in the market supply and demand of river crab, and prices have also become difficult to grasp, bringing relatively large losses to farmers. For this reason, investors need to fully understand the market prospects of river crab and grasp market trends before making investment decisions.

What are the common crab farming methods

1. Pond crab farming

When growing crabs in ponds, the entire farming process can be controlled manually, and the recapture rate is relatively high, but the harvested specifications and meat quality are inferior to crab farming in large water bodies. According to the farming method, it can also be divided into pond monoculture, fish-crab polyculture, and pond temporary holding.

2. Lake and river ditch crab farming

When crab species are grown into adult crabs in natural water bodies, the environmental conditions are relatively good, natural bait is sufficient, costs are low, and the adult crabs have large market specifications and good quality. However, the recapture rate is relatively low. According to current farming methods, it can be divided into lake and river ditch crab species release as well as lake net enclosure crab farming.

3. Grass marsh and reed beach crab farming

Grass marshes and reed beaches suit the ecological requirements for river crab growth, with low production costs, large market specifications, and good quality, but their recapture rate is relatively low.

4. Rice field crab farming

Using rice fields to raise adult crabs is an emerging aquaculture industry developed in recent years. This method can not only allow rice fields to require less fertilizer, kill pests, and clear weeds, but also increase the thousand-grain weight of rice. With slight modification, the rice field environment is also suitable for adult crab growth.

Crabs can be regarded as omnivorous animals, so their feed is relatively simple. There are many ways to farm crabs, and several are introduced above for everyone's reference. But no matter which method is used, everyone must master the farming density well.