SAVE OUR RAG AND LUG WORM

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Quoted by Socksy Squirrel

 

"Supposedly king rag in not native to Guernsey but has established itself from discarded worms."

 

So I am doing my bit for conservation on the worm front.

[Guest jay_con]

So If I gather non peeling crabs in December and set a 16 hour daylight timing period and put them in warm water they will peel????. Can you explain why crabs peel in the winter in many estuaries sam. Are you telling me its daylight and I havent noticed. Much more than light plays its part, and if you can get crabs to peel just using light I suggest you wrap in work and get ready to make an absolute fortune from peeler crab farming. The demand is huge and with people willing to pay up to a pound a crab it wont be long before your bank account is full.

 

What water temperature are you working with?

I am ready to eat humble pie.

[Davy Holt]

@summer@ you got it in one .. There is more to it than just daylight. The latest crab in my tank has peeled 3 times since May; the tank temperature has been constant as has the amount and type of light that the tank receives. However on each occasion there has been one change to the routine and the crab has peeled within a week or so of this every time. It could well be coincidence, but given the last crab followed the same pattern.. there could well be something in it

[sam-cox]

i didnt say it was just light, what you need to do is imertate mother nature, some plants will only flower under a 12 hour light rregine, so if you was to imertate the light cycle and water temp of say late may and everything else in your tank was ok , i think your male crabs would peel.

Summer,

even in cornwall which gets a warm water flow from the gulf streem, the crab peeling in winter is speradice, one can look for hours and only find a few.

[jason.p]

@SUMMER@:

CAn you supply us with any more info jason? My opinion is you can not induce peeling based on heat alone. If you can keep crabs for long enough in a near native environment offering the right diet etc then they will peel pretty much like they do in the wild. I keep hoping someone will prove me wrong, and supply me with the info on how to get them to peel, but to date noone has.

Summer sorry I can't give any more details. I had an email from SWWASAC some time ago about "Wheelers Peelers", but never followed it up. I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can come up with anything.

[Guest jay_con]

sam-cox:

i didnt say it was just light, what you need to do is imertate mother nature, some plants will only flower under a 12 hour light rregine, so if you was to imertate the light cycle and water temp of say late may and everything else in your tank was ok , i think your male crabs would peel.

Summer,

even in cornwall which gets a warm water flow from the gulf streem, the crab peeling in winter is speradice, one can look for hours and only find a few.

Sam your looking in the wrong place. If I want to I can find more than that this far north and given the ready supply of devon peelers available 12 months a year someone else knows where to look, Unless of course they cracked the secret?

 

My one thought is that crabs peel because they have outgrown thier last shell. Why the majority time this seems to happen in summer one can only guess but I should think a marine biologist could give you some scientific reason. Anyway I would have thought the one way to get them to peel is to get them to outgrow thier shell. Thats only me doing some guessing by the way, I aint saying that its right but it sounds like sense to me.

 

I also remember reading an article suggesting that crabs peel for a lot longer period than early summer but the majority peel way below the low tide mark so you never see them.

 

Davey - Im intrigued.

 

[ 03. September 2005, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: @SUMMER@ ]

[Davy Holt]

@SUMMER@:

 

Davey - Im intrigued.

I thought you might be

 

PM sent

[jason.p]

@SUMMER@:

CAn you supply us with any more info jason? My opinion is you can not induce peeling based on heat alone. If you can keep crabs for long enough in a near native environment offering the right diet etc then they will peel pretty much like they do in the wild. I keep hoping someone will prove me wrong, and supply me with the info on how to get them to peel, but to date noone has.

Summer, here's a link to Weelers Peelers. Looks interesting.

http://www.jwaquaculture.co.uk/

( i hope it's a link, never done one before!!)

[Guest jay_con]

Ah yes. Jaffa posted that once before.

 

Thanks for that mate. Ill re read it.

[stormbringer]

I think I can remember a article in Sea Angler a few years back on how to get crabs to peel. It recomended you poke their eye out, they said it never failed.