Mud Crab (Scylla serrata) Photographs and Information

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Scientific Name	Scylla serrata
Location	WA, NT, QLD, NSW
Season	All year round
Size	To 3.5 kg
Australian Species Code	00 702001
Taste, Texture	Delicate sweet taste. Medium to firm texture.

Information about Mud Crab (Scylla serrata):

Also known as Mangrove Crab, Muddy and Black Crab.

Mud crabs are large crabs with a smooth, broad carapace. They have 9 even sized teeth on each side of their eyes. Their two hind legs are flattened for swimming. In the most common form, the colour varies from very dark brown to mottled green. The other, generally smaller form has a deeper body and is reddish brown.

In Australia, mud crabs inhabit tropical to warm temperate waters from Exmouth in Western Australia up and around to the Bega River in southern New South Wales.

Mudcrabs inhabit sheltered estuaries, the tidal reaches of some rivers, mud flats and mangrove forests, although females carrying eggs are present in deeper waters up to 50 kilometres offshore. These crabs favour a soft, muddy bottom, often below low tide level.

Mating occurs when the female mud crab is in the soft-bodied condition following moulting. Female mud crabs in Australian populations migrate offshore to spawn and are rarely seen. 2 to 8 million eggs are produced in each spawning. Female crabs incubate the eggs for 2 to 4 weeks under their abdominal flap. For more information on the cycle of the Mudcrab click here PDF format

Mud crabs live for up to 3 years.

Juvenile mud crabs eat planktonic animals, benthic molluscs and crustaceans of various types. Adults feed at night on a variety of bivalve and gastropod molluscs including mussels, pipies, small crabs and polychaete worms. Mud crabs are also attracted to dead fish and meat in

traps. The mud crab's large claws are used for crushing and cutting their prey. If they lose a claw, they may grow another one in successive moults.

Natural predators of mud crabs include sharks, crocodiles, turtles, rays, large fish such as rock cods and barramundi.

Mud Crabs are caught in wire mesh pots baited with meat or fish. Mudcrabs are also a bycatch of the coastal set gillnet fishery for barramundi and threadfin salmon.

Live mudcrabs are sold on the local markets and also exported.

Minimum size applies in all states. Females in berry (with eggs) are protected in New South Wales and all females are protected in Queensland and Western Australia.