Why can't we eat dead crabs? How can we prevent hairy crabs from dying so quickly?

It’s the annual hairy crab season recently, and the crabs are fat and delicious.

But sometimes you accidentally buy too much and can’t finish it in one go, what should you do?

Soul-searching question: How can I prevent my hairy crab from dying so quickly? I want it to live a few more days!

Dad’s hardcore experiment is here!

We bought 12 hairy crabs (6 males and 6 females) and raised them in different environments:

Refrigerator lower shelf

Refrigerator top shelf

Refrigerator upper layer (feed egg yolk)

See which environment is best for preserving hairy crabs.

1. Which layer of the refrigerator is best for hairy crabs? Some people say:

In order to prevent hairy crabs from frostbite, it is best to keep them on the upper layer of the cold storage layer.

To verify this, we placed 4 hairy crabs (2 males and 2 females) in the upper and lower layers of the same refrigerator.

Cover each person with a wet and wrung-out towel, do not take a shower, and do not untie them (try to minimize physical exertion).

Pop its eyes every day to see if it's dead or alive, and observe its condition over the course of 10 days.

Covering with a wet towel is to maintain a certain humidity in the environment to prevent the crab from drying out.

Crab Vitality Changes

All the hairy crabs survived for more than 10 days (all responded when their eyes were poked), and their vitality was about the same.

★It seems that keeping hairy crabs in the upper/lower layer of cold storage has little effect on their vitality.

Crab weight changes

At the same time, we measured the weight changes of the two groups of hairy crabs.

Take the average weight change of each group of female crabs as an example:

After 10 days of breeding, the weight loss of female crabs in both groups was about 7g.

★It seems that keeping them in the upper/lower layer has no obvious effect on their weight loss.

We also consulted the company's electrical technicians and learned that there is indeed a temperature difference between the upper and lower layers of the refrigerator, but the temperature difference is not too large.

Taking the company's refrigerator as an example, the model is older and the temperature difference is only about 3°C. Such a temperature difference has little impact on the short-term survival of hairy crabs.

But we would like to remind everyone: Do not keep hairy crabs near the wall of the refrigerator.

Heat exchange is required during the operation of the refrigerator, and the temperature difference of the wall can be very large, sometimes as high as 8°C, and sometimes as low as below zero.

Such a temperature difference can easily accelerate the death of hairy crabs.

2. Can feeding egg yolks fatten crabs? If the hairy crabs are farmed for too long, they can "linger on", but their internal organs will be completely consumed, which greatly affects the taste.

So, we decided to feed the hairy crabs with egg yolks!

8 hairy crabs (4 males and 4 females) were placed on the upper shelf of the refrigerator:

Four of them (2 males and 2 females) were fed egg yolk once a day, and the other four were fed nothing.

Cover everyone with a wet and wrung-out towel, do not take a shower, and do not untie them (try to minimize physical exertion).

Pop its eyes every day to see if it's dead or alive, and observe its condition over the course of 10 days.

Crab Vitality Changes

Except for one female crab that was fed egg yolk, it broke free from the rope on the 7th day due to its excessive energy.

This resulted in excessive energy consumption and death on the 9th day.

The rest of the crabs survived past 10 days.

Crab weight changes

Because one female crab died, we take the average weight change of male crabs as an example:

After 4 days of breeding, the hairy crabs fed with egg yolks lost an average of 4.5g in weight, while the hairy crabs not fed with egg yolks lost an average of 6.25g in weight.

Obviously, the weight loss of hairy crabs fed with egg yolks in the first 4 days was much smaller than that of those not fed with egg yolks.

After the 4th day, the hairy crabs' vitality declined and their appetite for egg yolks decreased.

As a result, some egg yolk stuck to the ropes, so my weight increased.

Changes in meat quality/crab roe

In order to determine whether the taste of the hairy crabs has changed, we "sacrifice our own interests for the greater good" and send them on their final journey.

After tasting, everyone agreed that the taste of the two groups of hairy crabs was not as plump as those just bought.

It seems that no matter how you raise them, the consumption of hairy crabs during the breeding period will still affect the taste.

★For friends who are picky about the quality of meat, it is best to eat it as soon as possible and not keep it for too long.

Let’s take a look at the “essence of crab” – crab roe/crab paste.

Since October is not the season for male crabs, male crabs do not have much crab roe, so the change is not very obvious. (The experiment was conducted in October)

But there is a big difference between female crabs.

For female crabs fed with egg yolk, the crab roe (orange-yellow part) is still obvious;

For female crabs that were not fed egg yolk, the crab roe has basically disappeared.

★If you love crab roe, please don’t be bothered by it and feed the crabs 5-10 drops of egg yolk regularly every day.

How to feed?

The method is very simple.

Prepare a plastic dropper, suck up some egg yolk liquid, and drop it into the crab's mouth.

If you don't have a dropper, you can also use chopsticks to dip it.

3. Can crabs be raised in water? Someone else asked:

My refrigerator is full and there is no more space. Can I raise crabs by adding water at room temperature?

Not recommended.

To verify this issue, we specially selected 2 hairy crabs (one male and one female), added some water (not covering the crabs' mouths), and raised them at room temperature.

As a result, the female crab died on the second day, and the male crab died on the third day.

This method is too random and not suitable for long-term breeding.

If you don’t have a refrigerator at home, it is recommended that you eat it as soon as possible.

If you can’t finish it, you can make it into fried crabs and heat it up the next day to continue eating :)

Summarize the correct way to keep crabs in the refrigerator:

1. Cover with a wet towel (remember to wring it out a little) and place it in the refrigerator. It can usually be stored for more than 10 days;

2. There is not much difference between the upper and lower layers of the refrigerator, but do not put the crabs close to the refrigerator wall, otherwise they will be easily frozen;

3. If conditions permit, you can feed the crabs some egg yolk every day to reduce the consumption of crab paste/crab roe;

4. Do not release water for the hairy crabs, and do not "untie" the crabs to reduce their physical exertion;

5. The longer the fish is raised, the more its taste will be affected, so it is best to eat it as soon as possible.

Why can't we eat dead crabs?

Because there are many bacteria in the digestive glands of crabs, when they die, the digestive glands rupture and the bacteria are released and multiply in large numbers.

During reproduction, the bacteria break down the crab's protein into histamine.

This histamine is toxic and can cause food poisoning or allergies when consumed by the human body.

Just in case, never eat dead crabs.