River crabs eat animal carcasses, snails, red threadworms, mussels, worms, insects, small fish, shrimp, water plants and other foods. And the artificial cultivated river crabs can eat snails, yellow mealworms, earthworms, bean cakes, peanut cakes and other foods. River crabs, also called crabs and hairy crabs, are large crustaceans with a square-shaped, hard cephalothoracic armor that combines the head and thorax.

River crab life history

River crabs are freshwater growth, seawater reproduction crabs. Before the reproductive migration are young crabs, because of its yellow shell color, commonly known as "yellow crab", its gonads are very small, basically undeveloped, the weight of the liver is much greater than the weight of the reproductive glands.

When it completes its last molt, it develops into the "green crab", with a dark green shell color, full gonadal development, silky and dense velvet hairs on the male crab's chelicerae, and long and thick bristles on the footsteps, while the female crab's abdomen completely covers the ventral surface of the cephalothorax, and the bristles along the edge of the abdomen are long and dense.

The life of the river crab is short, in its life history through the flea-like larvae, big-eyed larvae, juvenile crabs and adult crabs and other stages, the life of the larvae need to molt 5 times to become a big-eyed larvae, and then 13-15 times molt to become an adult crab, which has only one reproductive cycle in its life, reproduction end of the life will also be terminated, in general, the life expectancy of the river crab for the age of 1-3 weeks.