My question is 'Are mudcrabs territorial?'.
The reason for the question is that a mate and I fished for muddies in the Noosa River but even when we pulled up a crabpot with a legal muddie he threw the pots back in the same spot.
If they were territorial then you'd expect only one in that particular area and the crabpot should be moved elsewhere. Does this make sense?
What has your experience been?
Cheers
Ps ... Only 2 legal male and the biggest female I've ever seen, claws as big as my hands.
Mate they are territorial when you catah a male muddy within two days there is usually another to take its place
Ken
Frazorodz
They become more territorial at certain times of the year
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see muddies in a river or in water are moving so they are aggressive towards one another because other crabs pose as 2 things either food or a threat in this case they arent territorial, a crabs teritory is his hole thats when he protects the area around that hole so if you placed pots outside holes you could be expected to only get the one male and possibly a female and no others, though in most cases when people go crabing they are placing pots in creeks and rivers and catching crabs on the move so there is no problem with placing a pot back in the same spot as more crabs will move past
personally mate iv had better success moving them around every hour
they are indeed territorial, but as mentioned, only in relation to their "house" if they are out and about, they will happily walk past each other, I have seen holes only 2 metres apart, and with a big male crab in each hole, but try one in a fish tank! anything that goes in later will get ripped to bits.
How about when you drop one on the floor of your boat and have three blokes sitting on gunwales with their feet up.Originally Posted by Noelm
If you've got a nice crab hole with a current running past it then the food is delivered to you and you defend your spot.
Other crabs will use the current to move through the waterway.
If you take the crab out of the hole then the next crab past will grab it.
I tend to change positions of pots/dillies unless they are in the main flow of water that the crabs are using to move around.
Regards, Rob.
Put 2 male muddies in the same bucket and see what happens!!!
it happens every now and then when crabs break threw deviders in my aquaculture ponds theres always 1 winner
I used to have a big muddie in a tank, he lived for years, but it did not matter what was put in, he klled it, even fish, he would wait for ages untill they either went to sleep/rest at night, and bingo, he had them, other crabs stood no chance, the minute they went it, he would just rip them to bits in about 1 minute
Year's back when I worked for Charis Seafoods, during easter we had a bulk supply of crayfish come in. The holding tank was about 8ft. On one side we kept Mudcrabs and on the other was crayfish. In the middle was a divider. We had one mudcrab as a store pet. Hammer as we called him, could roam freely around his large enclosure he was feed twice daily the lot. The next morning we opened shop. There was water all over the floor we looked at the tank and ower jaws hit the deck.Hammer had burrowed under the divider and crossed into the cray section. Not one single cray was spared. They were all torn to bits, he even had his fair feed along the way. Now that's an expensive learning experience for all. Later that day Hammer was promptly cooked..... such as life. Yep there are Territorial. Cheers long shift.
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