Blue Swimming Crab Life Cycle

Their life cycle is dependent on estuaries as the larvae and the early juveniles use these habitats for growth and development.

Blue swimming crab life cycle.

She will spend 31 49 days going through seven larval stages called zoea. During this first stage of growth they are transparent and only 1mm in length. The blue crab starts her life as a larva an early life stage that looks completely different than her adult form. A female crab weighing 100 to 200 grams lays 700 000 to one million eggs.

After the eighth zoeal stage larvae molt into megalopae. Zoea zo ee ya blue swimmer crabs hatch from their eggs in early summer as tiny larvae known as zoea. The family also includes other large edible crabs found in australia such as mud crabs. Zoea are poor swimmers and drift with the wind and tides either within embayments or along the coast up to 80 kilometres out to sea.

They float on the surface of the water far from the coastline. Pelagicus are a tropical species and belong to the portunidae family. Zoea grow and change shape over a four to six week period during early summer. The blue crab life cycle blue crabs start their lives as tiny zoea floating in the ocean waters.

Prior to hatching the female moves into shallow marine habitats releases her eggs and the newly hatched zoea i larvae move into estuaries. Formerly known as p. During seven planktonic zoeal stages blue crab larvae float near the surface and feed on microorganisms they encounter. Sapidus hatch in high salinity waters of inlets coastal waters and mouths of rivers and are carried to the ocean by ebb tides.

While growing into the megalopa stage the crabs drift back into the chesapeake bay where they grow into juvenile crabs and eventually adults. The female crabs move into shallow marine habitats prior to hatching. Each day the fishermen catch 10 to 50 female crabs of different species such as blue swimming crabs musk crabs and three spot swimming crabs. They come out to feed during high tide on various organisms such as bivalves fish and to a lesser extent macroalgae.

Its life cycle is dependent on estuaries as the larvae and early juveniles use these habitats for growth and development. To understand the blue crab life cycle we will follow a female blue crab from birth to reproduction. The lifecycle of a blue swimmer crab credit. The blue swimming crabs become mature within their 1 year of age.

Blue swimmer crabs portunus armatus. Crabs from this family can usually be recognised by their flat disc shaped hind legs used as paddles for swimming. The blue crab s life cycle is also closely related to its migration patterns. And they release their eggs there and the newly hatched zoea larvae move into estuaries.

They stay buried under sand or mud most of the time particularly during the daytime and winter which may explain their high tolerance to ammonium nh 4 and ammonia nh 3.