Japanese Spider Crab

The Japanese spider crab is the largest crab alive!  The Japanese spider crab has 8 legs and 2 big feeding arms, and generally lives under water but has been found on land.  The Giant Japanese spider crab can generally be found in the Pacific Ocean around Japan. They can live at depths of 50-300m  or 150-1000 feet. They generally have a dark orange body, with white spots on their legs.  In male specimens, the limbs on which the claws are located, become more extended than its legs.

This is a picture to show the scale of human to crab.

The spider crabs eyes are situated directly on the front, and two thorns stick out between them. Younger specimens of the spider crab feature hair and thorns on the body, and their frontal horns are longer, but these get shorter as they grow older. Giant spider crabs are omnivorous and scavenge for food.  They can eat algae, plants, mollusks and small fish, catching and tearing up the meat in their powerful pincers. Their long legs enable them to move quite quickly and stalk their prey.

I for one won't be swimming inshore in Japanese waters, unless I have one of the bigger varieties of harpoon-gun with me ! Or a big pair of rubber gloves, to hold a baby one, like this guy....

They move along the Ocean floor very slowly, and are consequently easy targets for hungry predators, that are big enough to attack it.  As some form of protection, they attach sponges and smaller animals to their shells to divert predators. The spider crab tends to live in Ocean vents or holes that are big enough to take it.  They are now hunted by fisherman as their meat is apparently quiet delicious. The spider crab  is caught using trawling nets, and is often eaten salted and steamed. They are caught in the Sagami, Tosa and Suruga bays and also around the Izu Islands.

During the spring when the crab lays its eggs, hunting them is prohibited and most fishermen thankfully obey these rules and the spider crab will not be served as a nice dish, allowing it to propagate so that it wont become and endangered species. One specimen had a 3.7m or 12 foot leg span and weighed 41 Lb!