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Japanese Spider crab

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  Animal class: Crustaceans – (Have a segmented body with 3 main body parts (the head, the thorax, and the abdomen) and an exoskeleton (an outer skeleton around the whole body to help protect them), when it is ti me to grow, they will “molt” (get rid of their old exoskeleton), they breathe with gills (land crabs have lungs and gills so that they can switch when they are on land or in the water), 2 pairs of antennae and 10 legs, they lay eggs that are someti mes att ached to a long string or other objects in the water or in a pouch att ached to the animal, and their sizes range from the Stygotantulus Stocki (similar to shrimp) at 0.004 in (0.1 mm) to the Japanese spider crab at 7 ft (2 m)) (Examples: Crabs, shrimp, lobsters, and pill bugs. There are about 40,000 diff erent species. )
• Diet: Omnivore (They eat plants and meat): Shrimp, seaweed, fi sh, lobsters, and they will also eat dead plants and animals that they fi nd on the ocean floor
• Lifespan: They can live up to 100 years
• Predators: Octopus and humans
• Size: About 3-7 ft (1-2 m), and their 10 leg’s alone are about 2.5 ft (76 cm) long
• Species: There are about 5,000 diff erent kinds of crabs in the world
• Status: Not Threatened
• Weight: About 40 lbs (18 kg)
• Where do they live?: They live in the Pacific Ocean near Japan and sometimes can be seen in the waters near China and Taiwan, but it is rare.
• They can go as deep as 160-2500 ft (50-762 m).
• They have a hard and bumpy outer shell (exoskeleton) that is orange-tan with white spots, and they someti mes use seaweed to cover their bodies. Their bumpy shells and the seaweed help them camoufl age from predators.
• People eat these crabs, which are considered a delicacy (fancy food). But you can not fi sh for these crabs during their mating season, from January to April.
• During mati ng season, these crabs will go to shallower waters to lay their eggs. Females will lay about 1 million eggs, but only a few will reach adulthood.
• They can lose up to 3 limbs and sti ll get around, and someti mes, when they molt (get a new skin), they can regenerate (regrow) a new limb.
• Spider crabs can molt about 20 ti mes during their lifeti me.