Mud Crab Soft Shell Farming and Production System

You might want to learn more about the farming which using the mud crab soft shell as the stocking so the growing rate can be fast for the production system. This kind of practice is actually very common for the farming system as the mud crab that still has soft shell will be easier to grow inside the farm. Once they have grow to be bigger, then their soft shell will then turn into hard shell and their sizing will also be suitable for commercial usage. Because of the high value that this type of crab has, that is why a lot of people also interested in the farming practice that using the soft shell mud crab.

The Use of Mud Crab Soft Shell in Production

Another reason why a lot of farmer that interested to do the farming practice that using the mud crab soft shell is because the practice itself can be done with low labor cost. Furthermore, the growing rate that the soft shell mud crab is actually very high, thus the practice will be able to create the earning faster. This type of farming practice is very famous being done by people who live around the coastal region. They are interested in doing this business since the profit is very high which may even higher compared to the shrimp farming practice when done with great management system. The best thing is that they are able to do the farming practice in smaller scale, thus everyone can try their hand on this system. Now, if you are interested to know more about the farming practice, then let us learn more about it below.

The first thing that you need to do is to know the mud crab soft shell species that is used on this farming practice. Actually there are two kinds of soft shell mud crab species that is used for this farming practice which both still combined inside Scylla genus. The first species that you can use is the green crab then you can also use red claw for the species. Both species is known to have different profile which you can learn more here. The first species will have bigger sizing with their carapace width that able to go until 22 cm and their weight that able to go until 2 kg. The second species will have smaller sizing with their carapace width that able to go until 12.7 cm and their weight that able to go until 1.2 kg.

Both of those best mud crab soft shell species are very suitable to be used on the farming practice that you will learn further here. For the farming practice itself, actually there are also two types of practice that you can use. The first is the growing farming practice while the second is the fattening farming practice. Now let us check out more detail about those farming practice below.

For growing farming practice the soft shell mud crab that is use should still be young since it will then be raised for some duration until they will go bigger. For the mud crab, they will usually take at around five until around six months until they will go bigger and has more suitable commercial sizing. The farming practice itself will be done inside pond which the sizing will be varied according to the preferred farming practice scale. But for the general preference, the pond size would be at 0.5 ha until at 2 ha. The pond itself should own water exchange that is good and the bund should also be good.

You can also do the mud crab soft shell farming practice in small size as it will be easier for you to do the maintenance. When that is the case, then you can install some fence for the bund since it will be stronger. But if you want to do it in large size, then you can still use natural bund. But in the future, you will still need to install the fence since the natural bund will start to get damaged after some time.

For fattening farming practice the soft shell mud crab that is use will then be raised for some duration until their soft shell will turn into hard shell mud crab for some duration. You need to know that the mud crab hard shell is actually valued higher than mud crab soft shell price and their value can even reach four until at five times higher than the other one. This is why a lot of farmers are choosing to do this farming practice as they are able to get better profit when doing this farming practice. As the growing rate of the soft shell mud crab is also fast then within a year, the farming practice can be done around eight practices until twelve practices.

The fattening mud crab soft shell farming practice itself will be done inside pond which the sizing will be at 0.25 ha until at 0.2 ha then the depth itself will be at 1 m until at 1.5 m. To get high quality lime on the bottom of the floor then before doing the farming practice, then you need to first drain the pond completely. Afterwards you need to put bamboo mat as the flooring of the pond then for the bund you need to use fence. This method is done so the pond will be stronger and the crab could not escape from inside since they usually dig around the pond to find their way out.

Now you can see that the soft shell mud crab is actually very useful for the seafood industry since they are very suitable to be used as stock for the farming practice. And since their growing rate is also very fast, then you will be able to do the farming practice in no time. Then their value is also very high thus you can sell the harvest in high price. With a lot of advantages that you can get from farming the mud crab soft shell, this means you should really try to do the practice.