The fattening of mud crab brood stocks candidate originating from crab hatchery using different foodstuffs

The production of crab brood stock is still a challenge in crab aquaculture. Although the seeds are available in the nature, however, the regulation issued by the Indonesian Government on the allowed size of caught crab from the wild becomes another challenge in providing the seeds. This study was aimed to analyze the type of feed for brood stock originated from hatchery. The study was conducted in crab research station in Maranak, Maros district, province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia belongs to Research Institute for Coastal Aquaculture. The samples of crabs were reared in 15 x 18.5 x 20 cm³ boxes stocked with 1 crab/box attached on a raft system in 1 m depth of pond. The samples were reared for 70 days and feed with trash fish (Treatment A), clams (Treatment B) and cowhide (Treatment C). The samples were feed once per day with 5% of biomass. The study was conducted under a Completely Randomized Design with 65 replications. The results of this study showed that the crabs feed with clams showed higher performances, compared to crabs feed with trash fish and cowhide. Although survival rates and the width of carapace between trash fish and cowhide were the same, a higher specific daily growth rate and length of carapace were found on crabs feed with trash fish (Table 1).

This study indicates that clams is a preferred foodstuff in rearing candidate of mud crab