Study on Carapace Width Growth Band Counts Relationship of Orange Mud Crab, Scylla olivacea (Herbst, 1796) from Terengganu Coastal Waters, Malaysia

Orange mud crab Scylla olivacea is one of the most important fisheries resources. A new development in ageing technique of crustaceans has been introduced. The detection of growth band deposited in hard structure of gastric mill in the cardiac stomach are found retained after moulting process can be used as age indicator and growth estimation. This study was carried out to determine the comparison between carapace width and growth band count of S. olivacea in Malaysia. Samples were collected from Setiu Wetlands, Terengganu, Malaysia from February until August, 2016. Samples were categorized based on their morphological measurements. The mesocardiac and zygocardiac ossicles in the gastric mill of S. olivacea was dissected out and preserved in solutions and underwent a cross sectioning process. A total of 76 of wild S. olivacea ranging from 6.56 to 12.84 cm in carapace width were analysed. The growth band counts were examined for each individual and ranging from 1 to 3 band counts. A positive linear relation was observed between CW and GBC with r2 = 0.5178, p