Crab question?

[deep_six]

Thanks for easing my concerns a little. I still think that I might make them Mantis chow just in case.

Richard,
How do you tell if the crabs are male or female?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by deep_six

How do you tell if the crabs are male or female?

Tagging along on this one. Gotta hear the explanation

[justinl]

Originally Posted by deep_six

How do you tell if the crabs are male or female?

I can field this one... it's actually pretty easy. Just look at the underbelly of the crab in question and the "scaly pattern" is distinctly different from male to female. look at the pics in this link... lol, it sounds like a porn site, but trust me it's just crabs.

http://www.lpsteamers.com/sex.html

[Richard_Dicosimo]

Ya beat me to it. if you ever go fishing on the west coast and do any crabbing supposedly the females taste funny, but better to throw them back anyways for reproduction.

Richard

[fkshiu]

Yep. Gotta love crabbing on the coast out here. Pacific dungeness are good eatin', although I usually ended up catching more starfish than anything else!

[Richard_Dicosimo]

the sunfish are brutal for going into you traps and eating your bait. i find the red rock better tasting then the dungeness, but they are alot smaller and their shells are alot harder. if you ever go as far as the douglas channel to fish the alsakn king crab come in to breed in spring and you will sometimes catch them ontop of your traps. in april im going out there to do some alaskin king crab diving and maybe some halibut spear diving.

Richard

[BCOrchidGuy]

It's illegal to keep female crabs (dungoness anyway). They have that pull tab looking thing on the bottom of them, the females is wide and the males is narrow.

Doug

[CLINT]

If you'd like to rid yourself of them I'm more than happy to take them.My mantis loves crabs.I could pick them up as well.LMK.Clint

[Richard_Dicosimo]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

It's illegal to keep female crabs (dungoness anyway). They have that pull tab looking thing on the bottom of them, the females is wide and the males is narrow.

Doug

actually its only illegal for commercial fishermen to keep females, i think most people put the females back regardless.

Richard