Abstract
Portunus trituberculatus is an economically important marine crab species in China. Short-term nutritional conditioning during the juvenile stage may improve their physiological readiness before release. This study compared the effects of four dietary treatments on the growth, antioxidant capacity, immune function, and hepatopancreatic transcriptome of juvenile P. trituberculatus. A 4-week feeding trial compared a commercial pelleted diet (Treatment C) with three natural marine diets: Larimichthys crocea (Treatment Y), Litopenaeus vannamei (Treatment X), and Ruditapes philippinarum (Treatment B). The results demonstrated that Treatments X and B exhibited optimal growth performance, with significantly higher weight gain rate (WGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) than Treatments Y and C (p