Growth and economic performance of different supplementary feed on female mud crab (Scylla olivacea) fattening in plastic box

Abstract

The present study was conducted to identify low cost feed for female mud crab (Scylla olivacea) fattening practice in plastic box and the effect of different feeds on growth and survival rate of mud crab. A number of 30 adult non-gravid female crabs were reared into rectangular shaped plastic boxes, each box containing one crab. Three types of feed such as Chicken intestine, Tilapia and Apple Snail meat were supplied as feed at 10% of body weight of the crabs once daily considered as Treatment-1, Treatment-2 and Treatment-3 respectively with 10 replications each to compare the fattening system.. The crabs in plastic boxes were floating into water to fatten for 10 days. Survival rate of crab was found 100%, 90% and 100% respectively in chicken intestine, tilapia and apple snail meat. In the experiment food conversion ratio (FCR) and specific growth rate in weight (SGRw) were varied significantly among different foods (P >0.05). Comparative benefit-cost analysis showed that use of chicken intestine as feed in crab fattening attained higher net profit than crab fattening used tilapia and apple snail s feed from 7-12 days fattening period The present study revealed that utilization of chicken intestine as feed for mud crab fattening might be better than any other feeds and cost effective in Bangladesh.
 Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2019, 5(4): 303-315

Efficacy of different wet feeds on the growth performance of mud crab Scylla serrata during fattening in cages

“…In the present study, T1 (fed with chicken intestine) recorded 100% survival, which was followed by T3 (90%), T2 (70%), and C (70%). Similarly, in another study Das et al (2020) obtained 100% survival with chicken intestine for orange mud crab Scylla olivacea. Mirera and Mtile (2009) obtained a lower survival rate of 45% with fish offal, whereas the current experiment recorded a higher survival rate of 70% with low-value fish.…”

“…The major reason for the enhanced survival rate in the present study was that they were maintained in individual cages. This observation was supported by Das et al (2020), which have proven that crab culture in cages is found to be economically feasible, in contrast to open-pen culture because it ensures better survival and no cannibalism.…”

“…As the weight gain of the mud crabs is dependent on the occurrence of molting, the influence of environmental parameters like tidal periodicity, water quality parameters, and other factors on molting should also be considered. It should be also noted that Das et al (2020) used nongravid adult females in their experiment, where the size-group of the animals is similar to that of the crabs that were used in the current experiment (Le Vay et al 2001;Grubert and Phelan 2007). It can be seen that the culture duration will vary according to the initial weight of the crabs and the targeted final weight.…”

“…Weight gain Das et al (2020) obtained the highest percentage of weight gain during fattening of 105 adult nongravid females using chicken intestine as feed with the culture period of 10 days.…”

“…Mwaluma (2002) found that the majority of the crabs had measurements between 40 and 59.9 mm, with initial weight increases of 3.1 times (as in the case of the size-group between 20 and 39.9 mm) and 2.6 times (as in the case of the size-group between 40 and 59.9 mm). Das et al (2020) obtained a SGR of 1.01% per day for mud crabs that were fed with chicken intestine. The present study obtained a slightly similar SGR of 1.07% for crabs that were fed with chicken intestine.…”