The research progress on food organism culture and technology utilization in crab seed production in ponds in China

Eriocheirsinensis, Portunus trituberculatus and Scylla paramamosain are important commercial culture crab species in China. Traditional factory breeding of crabs depends on Artemia nauplius. The rising price of Artemia cysts has led to the decline of the economic benefit of the crab breeding factory. Factory crab breeding has been gradually replaced by pond breeding in recent years. E. sinensis and P. trituberculatus have been bred mainly in ponds. Meanwhile, S. paramamosain is still mainly bred in factories because of the crudeness of pond breeding. The research progress on food organism utilization in the three species of commercially bred crabs was reviewed in this paper. In the workshop seeds production, rotifer and Artemia nauplii were necessary in the early stages from zoea I to zoea II in the three crab species. Adult artemia, minced fish and shellfish were fed to the larvae in the later zoea stages from zoea III to Megalopa. The rising of the price of artemia eggs made people find other feed organism to replace artemia. Copepods have been used in crab seeds production in pond from zoea III stage to replace artemia in recent years, which has reduced the cost of seeds production.