64th “Vietnamese Wild Crab” | Fish production is water production

This column has been all about solid topics for a while, so I'd like to change things up a bit and talk about crabs this time.

A long-arm mountain club red male with an attractive long-legged and unique body shape. Males have slightly larger pincer legs, but there is no noticeable difference in color or other characteristics between the sexes. The red color of the joints on the legs is an accent and is very beautiful.

As readers of this column may know, in addition to the freshwater fish of Southeast Asia, my other interests are freshwater crustaceans.
In the past, the main types of crabs were freshwater crabs such as long-eared shrimp and white shrimp, but since I started doing fieldwork here in Thailand, I have noticed that freshwater crabs such as freshwater crabs, mountain crabs, and long-tailed crabs have also been discovered. I have become very interested in it, and it has become a subject of observation and photography. In Honshu, Japan, the only crabs that can be found in freshwater areas are the Japanese river crab and the Japanese mitten crab.

Another male Long Arm Mountain Club Red from the one above. As you can see, there are not many individual differences, and they have almost the same appearance and color.

When viewed from the front, the eye sockets are outlined in red, making them very cute.

If you want to see more species, you'll need to travel all the way from Kyushu to Okinawa. If you go to the Ryukyu Islands, you can see a wide variety of freshwater crabs.
However, the crabs of the Ryukyu Islands are extremely valuable, as they are divided into different types depending on the island they live on. Unlike shrimp and other species that migrate on both sides, freshwater crabs, which have large eggs and whose larvae do not descend to the sea, will become extinct if their habitat disappears due to development or other factors.

Like other crabs, females have a rounded part called the crab loincloth, while males have a thin, triangular part, so it is easy to tell the sexes by looking at their abdomens.

For this reason, most species are now treated as endangered species, so keeping them as pets is not recommended.
The Species Conservation Act revised in 2017 specifies such species as the Himeyurisawa crab, Kakuresawa crab, Miyakosawa crab, and Tokashikisawa crab, and please be aware that collecting, buying, selling, and transferring these species is prohibited. sea bream.
In reality, it is difficult to raise freshwater crabs from the Ryukyu Islands.

Longarm Mountain Club Blue male individual. Beautiful blue-white body color. Since the body shape is almost the same as Red, there is a high possibility that it is a color variation of the same species. This long-legged feature alone makes them very attractive compared to other crabs.

If you want to raise freshwater crabs, we recommend raising foreign crabs that have been legally imported as pets.

Recently, many attractive crabs have been imported from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and southern China.
These foreign crabs are more colorful, so they are thought to be more suitable as ornamentals.
Recently, several kinds of attractive crabs were imported from Vietnam to Bangkok, where I live, so this time I would like to introduce them to you.

Longarm Mountain Club Blue male and female seen from the front. The one on the left is a male;

The female individual is on the right. There is almost no difference between the sexes other than the abdomen.

First of all, there are two types of body types that are very similar to the long-legged Japanese rockfish.
There was no product name, but for convenience I'll call it the Long Arm Mountain Club.

A male Vietnamese Hook Claw Mountain Club Red that threatens by brandishing its large scissor legs. There are some shades of color depending on the individual, but there are few individual differences. They are very rough in nature, so be careful when handling them to avoid getting pinched.

One type has a dark body, red pincers, and red joints on its walking legs, making it extremely beautiful and attractive.
It is also cute that the edges of the eye sockets are dyed red.

The other type is very similar in body shape to the previous species, but its body color is pale and completely different.
Other than color, they are very similar in body shape, so it is possible that these two types of body color may be due to regional variation or individual variation.
In western Thailand, where I often go to observe wild crabs, near the border between Thailand and Myanmar, I have observed several species of the same species but with completely different body colors.
The other two species have the same characteristic pincer shape, so it is highly likely that they are the same species.
There are two types: one with a bright red body color and one with an orange body color.

Male and female Vietnamese Hook Claw Mountain Club Red seen from the front. The one on the left is a male;

The female individual is on the right. You can see that the shape of the scissor legs differs greatly between males and females.

This type seems to have arrived in Japan before under the trade name Apple Mango Club, but let's call it Vietnamese Hook Claw Mountain Club.
This species is characterized by the male's pincers being greatly developed and curved on one side.
The four species introduced here are all considered to be members of the mountain crab family, which specialize in living on land, rather than freshwater crabs.

A male Vietnamese hookclaw mountain crab orange with large hook-shaped scissor legs. It is characteristic that only the right scissor leg develops into a hook shape. Other than the color, it is the same as Vietnamese hookclaw, mountain club, and red, so it is definitely a color variation of the same species.

In particular, the long-legged long-arm mountain crab seems to be able to capture the hearts of crab enthusiasts, especially now that Japan's original Japanese yellow-spotted crab can no longer be bred.
It is recommended that all types be kept in terrariums, mainly on land.
When breeding, it would be a good idea to provide a water hole in the case where the entire body can be submerged.
These wild crabs act aggressively at night, so it's best to have a sturdy lid so they can't escape from the enclosure.
I can't tell you how many times a crab ran away into my room in the middle of the night and I had a hard time catching it (lol).
They are omnivorous and often eat artificial fish feed.

Male and female Vietnamese hookclaw mountain crab orange seen from the front. The one on the left is a male;

The one on the right is a female individual. It is easy to tell the sexes apart by looking at the large, well-developed pincer legs on the right side of the male. This species also has a violent temperament, so be careful about fighting when keeping multiple.

The species from the continent do not have a limited habitat like the species from the Ryukyu Islands, and the number of individuals is relatively large, so even if they are collected for ornamental purposes, there is likely to be little pressure to collect them.
However, I would like you to try not to just keep them in captivity and let them die, but try to breed them as much as possible, and try to reduce the wasteful collection of wild specimens.
A hobby that consists of simply consuming living things will only make us feel weaker in this day and age, when public opinion for nature conservation is growing stronger.

No. 64 “Vietnamese wild crab”

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