Crab Facts
There are so many different kinds of crabs that crab facts make for interesting reading.
Crabs are known as decapods because they have ten legs.
Coconut Crabs have an unusual lung known as a branchiostegal lung. It is a cross between gills and a lung.
Crabs are arthropods and have segmented appendages like butterflies, spiders, and houseflies.
The Japanese Spider Crab is the oldest crab and the largest crab.
Hermit crabs do not have a shell of their own but use shells from other creatures.
Coconut crabs are so strong they can crack coconuts with their claws.
Coconut Crabs cannot breathe in water.
The most often eaten crab in the world is the Horse Crab or Japanese Blue Crab.
A Japanese Spider Crab can weigh over forty pounds. They can have a leg span of 13 feet.
Most crabs live no more than three years.
The scientific name for a crab is Callinectes sapidus.
Should a crab lose one of its claws, it will grow back.
Crabs are crustaceans. They do not have an endoskeleton like most kinds of animals but a hard exoskeleton instead.
Crabs are arthropods with segmented appendages like butterflies.
Crab facts tell us that the smallest crab in the world is the Pea Crab. As you might have guessed it is the size of a pea.
Crabs are omnivorous, eating both plants and animals.
Humans consume over 1.5 million tons of crabs each year.
The Thumbnail Crab looks like a human thumbnail.
Hermit crabs live on land and are often kept as human pets.
Crab meat is a great source of vitamin B-12.
Crabs can be boiled, steamed, baked, grilled, and microwaved.
Crab facts indicate that every year 300,000 tons of one crab is eaten. That crab is known as the Horse Crab or Japanese Blue Crab.
Crabbers catch crabs in cages.
Crabs are dormant from November to May.
An Alaskan King Crab can have a six-foot leg span and give us up to six pounds of meat. He can weight a total of 25 pounds.
Blue Crabs shed their outer layer or molt up to twenty-five times during their lifetime.
The season for taking Alaskan King Crab is only a week long.
The only part of a Stone Crab that is eaten is his claws. He is thrown back into the ocean and grows new claws.
A Fiddler Crab has only one claw on one side.
Crab meat contains antioxidants which are good for you and can lower the level of your bad cholesterol.
A Sally Light Crab has the most colors--orange, white, orange, red and yellow.
Crabs have their teeth in their stomachs.
America’s best selling crab is the Blue Crab which lives on the East Coast.