Unusual crab sighting
Submitted by CURT on Tue, 2014-11-18 19:45
Hi all,
Was hoping someone could help me identify the crab I saw today when I was free diving off the beach in safetybay. I have never seen one like it. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera and have struggled to find anything really resembling online. This one photo which came up as a spider crab is close . It was slightly different as it didn't seem to be covered in spines but it was heavily covered in algae which was could have been hiding them. The ends of all it's legs were a greyish blue colour apposed to red in the pic, these were the only part of it not covered in algae. It was about the size of a large mud crab.
Image Upload:
grantarctic1
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 03/03/11
Brooding spider crab
Here is a thread i posted ages ago fishwrecked.com/forum/crab-id-required . If you read down the comments Glenn Moore from the museum ID's it as a Brooding Spider Crab. Somtimes they are call Decorator spider crabs cause they stick seaweed and stuff to thier shell.
They are called Brooding crabs because they carry live young in the belly flap, unlike most crabs that will carry eggs.
CURT
Posts: 338
Date Joined: 05/02/08
Thanks
Yer pretty sure that's him. Was bloody wierd haha
gibbs
Posts: 158
Date Joined: 20/04/11
Got 1 in my cray pot the
Got 1 in my cray pot the other day. What do they taste like