Growth and condition of post-moult male snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in the laboratory

We monitored soft-shell and hard-shell legal-sized male snow crabs sampled periodically in the field or fed to satiation at 4.5 jC in the laboratory for changes in nutritional condition. In soft-shell crabs, feeding resulted in a significant decrease of water content in all tissues. This decrease was associated with increased lipid (digestive gland) and protein (muscle and haemolymph) contents. The weight of the muscle in the merus and the weight of the digestive gland also increased. Feeding had no impact on the nutritional condition of hard-shell crabs in the laboratory. In the wild, soft-shell crabs required a much longer period of time to recover to the hard-shell condition than was postulated from earlier studies; nutritional condition of soft-shell crabs did not improve markedly over summer and into autumn. The results of the present study are relevant to aquaculture and stock management. Landed legal-sized hard shell adolescent crabs could be held through terminal moult and grown to a marketable condition in a reasonably short period of time. Nutritional condition indices may also provide valuable information on several aspects of production and contribute to