Biological Features of Sentinel Crab Podophthalmus vigil (Fabricus, 1798) in Terengganu Coastal Water, Malaysia

Biological features of size at maturity, fecundity of berried female, size distribution, relationship of Carapace Width (CW) and Body Weight (BW) and sex ratio of sentinel crab, Podophthalmus vigil from Terengganu coastal water, Malaysia of South China Sea were studied. Sexual maturity (CW 50 ) was achieved at 11.51 cm for male and 9.53 cm for female. The mean fecundity was 312613.5089835.08 eggs. Size distribution of male and female was slightly different with males have size range from 8.0 to 18.9 cm CW, while females ranged between 7.0 to 11.4 cm CW. The mean CW and BW of P. vigil males were significantly greater than that of females. The CW-BW relationship for males P. vigil was attained as BW = 46.892e 0 .0719CW (R 2 = 0.1155) and for females was estimated as BW = 6.3117e 0.2665CW (R 2 = 0.5523). Finally, the sexual ratio of P. vigil for male to female was 1: 0.65. The data obtained from this study can be used as the baseline data for future study on P. vigil fishery and aquaculture management in Malaysia coastal water especially and within the Indo-pacific region generally.