Comparative growth and morphometric assessment between cultures of wild and hatchery-produced mud crabs

This paper reports the comparative growth, nutritional performance, and morphometric variation between wild and hatchery-reared juvenile mud crabs (Scylla olivacea) in earthen ponds. The crabs were fed daily with boiled tilapia paste at a feeding rate of 5–8% body weight for the first two weeks, followed by feeding with chopped eviscerated tilapia until termination of the experiment. Selected phenotypic trains, including carapace width (CW), carapace length (CL) and abdominal width (AW), were measured weekly. The protein content of the muscle (21.13%), gill (13.51%) and egg (43.28%) were significantly higher in the hatchery-sourced compared to wild female crabs (muscle = 19.15%; gill = 10.09%; egg = 38.15%). Likewise, the hatchery sourced crabs exhibited higher lipid content in the muscle (2.45–2.51%) and eggs (7.51%) compared to the wild counterparts (muscle = 1.45–1.47%; egg = 6.15%). These findings suggested a superior nutritional quality of the hatchery-reared compared to the wild-sourced crabs. Although some selected phenotypic traits did not vary among the wild and hatchery-reared crabs (p < 0.05), their survival rates varied significantly depending on the stocking density (p < 0.05). Overall, the findings suggest that the growth characteristics of the hatchery produced and wild-sourced crab were similar, which will help to remove the misconception among the crab farmers about the hatchery seeds and promote diversification of the crab production system for long-term sustainability.