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Portunus pelagicus larvae in hatcheries experience high mortality during the early stages of development, primarily due to bacterial infections. A study was performed to determine the effectiveness of the indigenous probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum as a water additive in P. pelagicus larviculture. Three treatments and the control were tested in triplicate. The treatments consisted of three levels of L. plantarum were added daily at designated concentrations 1.0 × 10⁶ (T-1), 5.0 × 10⁶ (T-2) and 1.0 × 10⁷ cfu ml^− 1 (T-3) and control without any probiotic. The addition of the probiotic significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) survival rate of crab larvae for all treatments over the control. L. plantarum population (cfu ml^− 1) progressively increased (p < 0.05) in treated tanks over the time. Total bacteria and Vibrio counts found significantly lower (p < 0.05) in treated tanks over the control. The addition of L. plantarum influenced the …