Morphological Attributes and Quality Parameters of Different Sexes of Eriocheir sinensis Cultured in a Pond

Abstract:

The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is an important freshwater crustacean cultured in China. It is popular with consumers because of its high nutritional value, pleasant smell, and taste. With increasing demand from the Chinese market, Chinese mitten crabs are now widely cultivated in ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. Pond culture of E. sinensis is the current main production method. To understand the parameters of morphological indicators of the Chinese mitten crab, some morphometrical traits, including carapace length (CL), carapace width (CW), carapace height (CH), and body weight (W) and moisture content were measured in E. sinensis cultured in ponds, and the hepatosomatic index (HSI) and muscle index (MI) were estimated to understand morphological attributes and quality parameters. The results showed no significant difference in CL, CW, body height, and MI in different sex groups of juvenile crabs (P>0.05), with significant differences in body weight in juvenile crabs (P<0.05). There were highly significant differences by sex in the above indices for adult crabs (P<0.01). Juvenile crabs had significantly higher HSI and MI than adult crab (P<0.01). The regression equation for juvenile crab body weight (Y1), body weight of adult crabs (Y2) CW (X2), and CH (X3) were expressed as Y1=12.067+16.416X3, and Y2=268.423+62.078X2, a higher decision coefficient for juveniles than for adults. The findings provide a scientific basis for ecological breeding of Chinese mitten crabs in yield estimation and quality evaluation.