Prospects of Mudcrab farming along the Konkan Coast of Maharashtra

摘要

Mudcrab considered as a very expensive seafood delicacy all over the world. The demand for live crabs in foreign market like South East Asian Countries has prompted efforts to farm large growing species of crab in confinements and harvest them at attractive sizes for exports in live form (Santhanan, 1946; Cheu, 1976). At present in India, crabs used for domestic consumptions well as for exports are largely obtained from the capture fisheries.Among the various species of crabs supporting the commercial fishery, those belonging to genus Scylla of the Family: Portunidae are commonly known as Mudcrab. They are found to grow in nature to a large size of about 22 cm in carapace width and about 2Kg in weight. On Konkan coast of Maharashtra, Mudcrab (Scyllaserata) occur commonly in the shallow coastal waters, lagoons, brackish water areas, esturies, intertidal swamps and mangroves (Chappgar, 1957). The seed of this crab is available in good quantity in this region. To study the prospects of mud crab farming in Biological Research Station, Peth Killa, Ratnagiri. During four-months experiment period, the maximum weight gain in mud crab were observed. In this experiment, the stocking density of crab was kept4nos./m2. It was observed that the fish head was most accepted and cheaper ffeed as compared to other feed forms. An economic studies revealed that the crab farming is a low cost aquaculture technology and can be transferred to the local farmers of Konkan coast of Maharashtra. The detailed experimentalobservations of Mudcrab and their growth are presented in this paper.