Size: up to 20 cm

 

Key Features: The males are bright blue in colour with white spots and with characteristically long chelipeds, while the females have a duller green/brown, with a more rounded carapace. They are excellent swimmers, largely due to a pair of flattened legs that resemble paddles.

 

Habitat: stay buried under sand or mud most of the time, particularly during the daytime and winter.

 

Habits: They have high tolerance to ammonium and ammonia. They come out to feed during high tide on various organisms such as bivalves, fish and, to a lesser extent, macroalgae. In contrast to another portunid crab (Scylla serrata), they cannot survive for long periods out of the water.

 

Conservation status: Not Evaluated

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Romano N. & Zeng C. (2007). "Ontogenetic changes in tolerance to acute ammonia exposure and associated histological alterations of the gill structure through the early juvenile development of the blue swimmer crab,Portunus pelagicus". Aquaculture 266: 246–254.

 

Romano N. & Zeng C. (2007). "Acute toxicity of sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and potassium chloride and their effects on the hemolymph composition and gill structure of early juvenile blue swimmer crabs (Portunus pelagicus Linnaeus, 1758) (Decapoda, Brachyura, Portunidae)". Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 26 (2007): 1955–1962.

 

Romano N. & Zeng C. (2007). "Effects of potassium on nitrate mediated changes to osmoregulation in marine crabs". Aquatic Toxicology 85 (3): 202–208.

 

Romano N. & Zeng C. (2006). "The effects of salinity on the survival, growth and haemolymph osmolality of early juvenile blue swimmer crab,Portunus pelagicus". Aquaculture 260: 151–162.

 

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project, Second Interim Progress Report, GEER Foundation, June 2012

 

 

Photo Courtesy

Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons