How to Tell If a Hairy Crab Is Playing Dead? A Few Quick Tricks to Spot It

After buying hairy crabs and bringing them home, many people put them straight into water to keep them, only to find them dead when they take them out. In fact, hairy crabs sometimes play dead, so how do you tell if a hairy crab is playing dead?

1. How to tell if a hairy crab is playing dead?

1. Look at the eyes

If a bound hairy crab is completely motionless and you cannot tell whether it is alive, you can touch its eyes and see whether they blink. If they blink, it is fresh and alive.

2. Watch for bubbles

You can also put the hairy crab in a basin and add water up to its mouth. If it blows bubbles, that means the hairy crab is alive.

3. Look at the crab legs

The thinnest part of a crab leg is curved. When judging whether a crab is fresh and alive, you can gently straighten the thinnest part with a little force. If the leg quickly returns to its curved state, that means the hairy crab is fresh and alive.

4. See whether it crawls

If you really cannot tell whether it is alive, you can put the hairy crab in a basin, untie the rope binding it, and give it a nudge to see whether it moves.

2. When are hairy crabs at their plumpest?

From mid-to-late September to November, hairy crabs are at their plumpest, but the timing for eating female crabs and male crabs is different.

Female crabs: Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs generally have their lake-opening in mid-to-late September each year. During the month after the lake opens, it is the best time to eat female crabs; at this time the female crabs are plumpest, with abundant and firm crab roe. If you eat them early, the roe is not full and the crab legs are rather dry and stringy, so the texture is poor; if you eat them late, the female crabs have already mated and laid eggs, the roe is reduced, and they do not taste good either.

Male crabs: After finishing the female crabs, it is the best time to eat male crabs, generally from the end of October to November on the Gregorian calendar each year. At this time the male crabs are at their most fragrant, with plump crab paste.