tMud crabs (Scylla spp.) are intensively caught throughout South-East Asia and support a very substan-tial commercial, recreational fishing and aquaculture industry. Identification of individual animals isimportant to improve understanding and management of this species. However, tagging of crustaceansis difficult as they frequently molt and internal tags can pose a hazard to consumers. In this pilot studywe tested a new method combining passive integrated transponder tags and t-bar tags externally. 45giant mud crabs (Scylla serrata) were captured from the wild and kept in tanks for a maximum of 10months. We inserted tags into the abdomen of 35 giant mud crabs and tested a modified method wherethe combined t-bar/PIT-tag was inserted into the muscle tissue of the rear leg between the dorsal cara-pace plate and the top of the abdominal flap. Tagged crabs with the modified method showed 85% tagretention for molting crabs. We tested the same method in the field where 852 individuals were taggedwith combined t-bar/PIT-tags of which 82 were recaptured showing 100% tag retention but without anyevidence of molting having occurred. The tested method of combined t-bar/PIT-tags in giant mud crabscan further improve monitoring for wild and aquaculture populations and can be deployed widely withlow cost