International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies 2017; 5(5): 272-277 

E-ISSN: 2347-5129
P-ISSN: 2394-0506
(ICV-Poland) Impact Value: 5.62 Some biological aspects of mud crab Scylla serrata
(GIF) Impact Factor: 0.549
IJFAS 2017; 5(5): 272-277 (Forskal) Fisheries at Pelita Jaya Bay, Western Seram
© 2017 IJFAS
www.fisheriesjournal.com Regency, Indonesia
Received: 17-07-2017
Accepted: 18-08-2017
Johannes MS Tetelpta, AS Khouw, Y Natan and OTS Ongkers
Johannes MS Tetelpta
a) Department of Aquatic
Resources Management, Faculty Abstract
of Fisheries and Marine Science. Research on some biological aspects of mud crab Scylla serrata of Pelita Jaya Bay was conducted
Pattimura University, Ambon. between February to August 2012. Mud crab samples were obtained from local fisher from Pelita Jaya
Indonesia Village before sold. Majority of (53.20%) mud crab caught have the carapace width between 12-14 cm
b) Maritime and Marine Science with 12.cm being the dominant one. There was a high relationship between carapace width-weight
Center of Excellence. Pattimura relationship with negative allometric growth pattern. The sex ratio showed monthly variation but not
University. Ambon, Indonesia different statistically, with overall sex ratio of male to female was 1.04:0.96. Condition factor also also
showed monthly variation but not statistically different. Estimation of 50% mean size at first maturity
AS Khouw revealed that female mud crab reaches their first sexual maturity at the mean size of carapace width of
Department of Aquatic approximately 12.00 cm with the smallest berried female caught of 9.60 cm carapace width.
Resources Management, Faculty
of Fisheries and Marine Science.
Pattimura University, Ambon.
Keywords: biological aspects, mud crab, Pelita Jaya Bay
Indonesia
1. Introduction
Y Natan Coastal area of Pelita Jaya Bay of Western Seram District is a semi enclose coastal waters
a) Department of Aquatic surrounded by three main tropical ecosystem i.e. mangrove, coral reefs, and sea grass bed.
Resources Management, Faculty
of Fisheries and Marine Science.
Among these three ecosystems, mangrove ecosystem is the dominant one and consequently
Pattimura University, Ambon. contributes immensely to productivity of this area as shown by many fish resources found in
Indonesia this area like some pelagic fishes (skipjack tuna, anchovy, mackrel), some molluscs (blood
b) Maritime and Marine Science clam, mangrove oyster, terebralia), mud crab, echinoderm, and macro algae, all of economic
Center of Excellence. Pattimura importance and non economic important [1; 2; 3).
University. Ambon, Indonesia
Among many fish resources found in this area, mud crab of Scylla spp. is being one of
OTS Ongkers particular fish sources with high price and demand, supporting the live of local mud crab
a) Department of Aquatic fishier in this area. Harvested mud crab with weight of 1 kg ind.-1 and over (super one class)
Resources Management, Faculty priced for IDR. 120,000.00. Main market for this super one class mud crab is mainly for
of Fisheries and Marine Science. regional market like Makassar of South Sulawesi and Batam of North Sumatra. High price,
Pattimura University, Ambon.
Indonesia
constant demand, economy dependency and poor fisheries management has lead to extensive
b) Maritime and Marine Science exploitation of this commodity. Study by Makatita4 (2012), Tetelepta and Makatita5 (2012)
Center of Excellence. Pattimura shows that a sign of resource depletion has occured. According to local mud crab fisher, both
University. Ambon, Indonesia number and size of mud crab harvested during the last ten years is decreasing.Estimated catch
at 2005 was 20.479 kg yr-1 decreased to 17.202 kg yr-1by 2010. Among female mud crab
harvested, some were in their reproduction status and more than 95% was in mature status [6, 7]
Mangrove crab or mud crab or sometime called as black crab of Scylla spp. is one of fisheries
resources lives in coastal area and in particular in the mangrove area. Ecological conditions
play an important role on the sexual maturity of mud crab through the amount of available
food and the environmental temperature. Reduction in mangrove swamp area may perturb the
Correspondence
Johannes MS Tetelpta
food chain in the mangrove swamp affecting crab sizes at sexual maturity while the spawning
a) Department of Aquatic period may vary from year to year [8, 9].
Resources Management, Faculty This crab has quite a high economic value both for the domestic market and international
of Fisheries and Marine Science. market [10, 11]. With hard exoskeleton body structure cause this animal to have less edible
Pattimura University, Ambon. portion whilst mature female has more edible portion. This is why the mature female becomes
Indonesia
b) Maritime and Marine Science
a target in harvesting [12]. Local mud crab fisher from Pelita Jaya Village of Pelita Jaya Bay
Center of Excellence. Pattimura and some other villages nearby have harvested this crab for more than 25 years. Initial
University. Ambon, Indonesia observation on institutional practices either formal or informal in these areas have revealed
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that there was no regulation on the management of this conducted from February to August 2012.
resources. With this situation followed by high price and
demand as well as economic pressure experienced by local 2. Materials and methods
fishermen bring this mud crab fishery under serious threaten. Mud crab samples were taken from Pelita Jaya Village of
This study was aimed to investigate some population Pelita Jaya Bay of the Sub district of Western Seram (Figure
parameters of mud crab Scylla serrata covering population 1). During spring tides all mud crabs caught by local
structure, carapace width-weight relationship, sex ratio, fishermen were sampled and measured for external carapace
condition factor, mean size at 50% first maturity of S. serrata width and body weight before being sold by fishermen.
and problems related to management practices in Pelita Jaya Sampling was conducted from February to August 2012 with
Village for future management purposes Mud crab fishery in two weeks interval. A total number of 522 individu mud crab
Pelita Jaya Village of Jaya Bay started since 1980 an still was sampled then classified into male and immature and
continue up to the present time, conducted by local fisher mature female based on the morphology of the abdominal
form this area. Majority people from this village work as segment. For gonad maturity level of mud crab, identification
fishermen and most of them only have elemenrty education was based on procedure proposed by Siahainenia13 (2008).
leve background. There are three species of mud crab Sex ratio was estimated per monthly sampling and for total
commonly caught by the fisher i.e. S. olivacea, S. observation, then chi-square test were used to determine if the
paramamosain and S. serrata. The later species was chosen proportion of males and females are significantly different
from these three species caught since it dominated the from 1:1 expected ratio with the probability level was set to
harvested of mud crab fishery in this area. The study was 0.05 [14, 15].

Fig 1: Map of Pelita Jaya Bay showing study site (Pelita Jaya), District of Western Seram.

The analysis of variance was applied to identify the Zar14 (1999) using the following formula:
relationship of sex on weight which will result in the
estimation of carapace width-weight relationship. The result
will determine whether it should be estimated separately by
sex or whether both sexes should be combined. Then carapace
width relationship was subsequently calculated using the
equation proposed by Sparre and Venema16 (1992) as follow: Sex ratio was estimated per sampling date and as a whole. A
chi-square test was used to determine if the proportion of
males and females were significantly different from 1:1. The
probability level was set at 0.05 [15]:

The value of b is then used to determine growth pattern i.e.

isometric growth (b = 3) or alometric growth (b ≠ 3) by using
t-Student test based on Pauly17 (1984). The analysis was done
in the computer software of Microsoft Excel Version 2010 where O = observed frequency and E = expected frequency
with statistical difference were considered significant when The condition factor (CF) of the crab was calculated by the
p<0.05. Test of regression coefficient between male and equation proposed by King18 (2007):
female mud crab was conducted through t-test according to
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where = observed mean weight and = by local fisher during the study period ranged between 8.60
cm to 24.50 cm with the average size caught being about
predicted mean weight =
13.91 cm (SD  2.25). For female mud crab, carapace width
The mean size at 50% first sexual maturity for females was size distribution ranged between 8.60 cm to 22.40 cm with the
estimated by fitting size class (cm) against cumulative mean size caught by the fisher was 14.40 cm (SD  2.56). The
percentage of female. Size class fall below 50% of percent
cumulative was considered as mean size at first maturity [19]. size distribution of both sexes was similar ( except
the last period. The most size frequently caught mud crab for
3. Results and Discussion male and female was 12.60 cm and 12.50 cm respectively.
3.1 Size frequency distribution Figure 2. Shows percentage size frequency of both sexes
The carapace width size distribution of male mud crab caught except for August period.

Fig 2: The percentage size frequency of mud crab S. serrata caught by local fisher of Pelita Jaya Village.
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The mean size of carapace width distribution in this study was S. serrata as shown by high correlation coefficient (r =
higher than what was found by Tongdee20 (2001) and 0.9591). The same relationship pattern was also found in
Jirapunpipat9 (2008) in Thailand, Ali et al21 (2004) in some other sites like in Thailand, Bangladesh, Southeast
Bangladesh, Suryani22 (2006) in Bengkulu (Indonesia) and Sulawesi, India and Micronesia [20, 9. 24. 23. 29]. The b value for
Fondo et al.19 (2010) in Kenya, whilst La Sara23 (2010) found male and female and combine male and female were lower
slightly higher in Lawele Bay of Southeast Sulawesi, than 3 (Figure 3 and Figure 4) and from the t-student test at
Indonesia. A study by Bonine et al.24 (2008) in Kosrae of 95% confidence interval (p = 0.05) showed a negative
Micronesia showed relatively similar results with this study as alometric growth pattern meaning length increment was faster
reported in the present study. This size frequency distribution than weight increment.
differences could be due to site effect, habitat condition and
harvest intensity. According to local mud crab fisher of Pelita
Jaya Village, the size they harvested now is smaller than what
they harvested 15 years back.

3.2 Carapace width-weight relationship

From test of regression coefficient differences between male
and female mud crab, it was found that no significant
difference in carapace width-weight relationship (P<0.05) as
shown in Figure 3. The only slight differences start to occur at
the carapace width of 17 cm where female S. serrata tend to
have slightly higher body weight. Since there is no significant
difference between male and female mud crab regression
coefficient, regression on carapace width-weight relationship
was then pooled and estimated for both sexes in single
analysis and Figure 4. displays that relationship. Fig 3: Carapace width-weight relationship of male and female mud crab
Scylla serrata (n = 266 of male crab and n = 254 of female crab).
The pooled regression analysis showed that there was a strong
relationship between carapace width and weight of mud crab

Fig 4: Carapace width-weight relationship of mud crab Scylla serrate

3.3 Sex ratio calc. = 0.66 < χ2 table = 3.84 (p = 0.05; df = 1). This also
There were 522 individuals of mud crab used in this study explains that the sex ratio found from this study was not
comprise of 266 male mud crab and 256 female mud crab. significantly different from hypothetical distribution sex ratio
The largest size male and female mud crab was 22.40 and 1:1. This result suggests that proportion of male and female
24.5 cm for external carapace width respectively. The overall mud crab in the area are equal or both sex have an equal
sex ratio of male to female found in this present study was probability to be captured. Table 1. showed sex ratio for
1.04:1. Result of chi-square test showed that there was no monthly period which statistically do different through all the
significant difference between male and female in which χ2 period.

Table 1: Sex ratio of male and female mud crab S. serrata of Pelita Jaya Village.
Period Male Female M/F X2
February 38 35 1.09:1.00 0.7255
March 47 43 1.09:1.00 0.6732
April 48 51 0.94:1.00 0.7630
May 40 42 0.95:1.00 0.8251
June 43 38 1.13:1.00 0.5785
August 50 47 1.06:1.00 0.7606
Total 266 256 1.04:1.00 0.6616
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The deviance of equal sex ratio could appear and this could be
due to male and females movement during their reproductive
activity. Mature female mud crab usually move off shore to
spawn whilst male female remain in mangrove swamp [25. 9J,
26 27
, ]. Study in Bangladesh [21] gave similar pattern with this
present study, but slightly different from what was found in
Kenya [19].

3.4 Condition factor

The condition factor of male and female mud crab for each
month observation was shown on Figure 5. This figure shows
almost the same pattern throughout the observation period
with male having the highest value (1.00790) on February and
female mud crab having the highest value (1.03206) on
August. Even the value varies between male and female but
not statistically significant ( 0.05). Condition factor Fig 6: Mean size of carapace width at first maturity of S. serrata of
Pelita Jaya Bay
can be used as an indicator to describe a fatness or wellbeing
condition of a particular organism [27]. A study on the same
4. Conclusion
species in Bangladesh shows condition factor range from 0.41
The most common technique applies by mud crab fishermen
to 1.53 for male and 1.0074 to 1.0374 for female [21], whilst in
for harvesting the mud crab is crab plot employed within the
coastal area of Mayangan (Westerm Java), Indonesia, the
mangrove forest. For fishermen at Pelita Jaya Village have
value range from 0.82 to 1.5 for male and 0.84 to 2.2 for
harvested this crab for more than 25 years with almost no
female [29]. Study on orange mud crab S. olivaceae in
management regulation either formal or informal. The plot
Thailand [9] showed lower condition factor which ranged from
mesh size use is approximately 4.5 cm, slightly bigger than
0.27 to 0.39 for female and 0.10 to 0.1421 for male orange
what was used in some parts in the Philippine, Thailand, and
mud crab. Toward.
Viet Nam. With this plot mesh sizes and fishing period that
has been carried out for more 20 years, not surprisingly that
the size and number were inevitable decrease.
The smallest mud crab caught was 8.4 cm and majority
(53.20%) of mud crab caught was at size between 12.00-14.90
cm carapace width. There was a high relationship between
carapace width-weight for both male, female and pooled
sexes and the growth pattern was negative alometric. Monthly
sex ratio for male and female mud crab gave lower variation
with overall sex ratio of 1.04:0.96. The condition factor of
male and female mud crab was varies between month but
statistically not different.
Observation on the 50% mean size at first maturity revealed
that female mud crab reaches their first sexual maturity at the
Fig 5: Monthly variation in condition factor of male and female mud mean size of 12.00 cm carapace width with approximately
crab Scylla serrata. 36.65% of female mud crab caught having carapace width
3.5 Size at first maturity range between 12.00-13.00 cm which is quite high and can
Estimation of 50% mean size at first maturity from this lead to recruitment over fishing.
present study has revealed that female mud crab reaches their
first sexual maturity at the mean size of carapace width of 5. Acknowledgement
approximately 12.00 cm (Figure 6.). Sexual maturity in S. The authors would like to thank Ayhuan Vanny and
serrata is believed to occur at a smaller size in many tropical Qomariah Bugis students from Faculty of Fisheries and
populations compared to subtropical populations. Higher Marine Science of the Pattimura University, Ambon and to
water temperatures in the tropics are suspected to increase the the local mud crab fishers of Pelita Jaya Village of Western
crab’s growth rate and decrease time to maturity [30, 19]. A Seram District which made this study possible through their
smallest female mud crab S. serrata found to sexual mature in support and friendship. This study was funded by Research
Malindi, Kenya was 81.5 mm carapace width but first sexual Fund provided by The Directorate of Research and
maturity was at 90.00 mm [31, 19]. A. study at Klong Ngao Community Service of The Department of Education and
mangrove swap, Ranong Province, Thailand [9,32] showed Cultural of the Republic of Indonesia under MP3EI Research
mean size at first maturity of S. olivacea was 9.55 cm external Scheme, 2012
carapace width with the minimum size of being 8.3 cm. These
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