Crab behavior at Lobos

[IanK]

I was diving at Pt Lobos on Thursday and Friday. Vis was good at about 40ft on Thursday morning but got progressively worse as time went on.

I captured a picture of what I initially thought was a big crab. On looking at it at home, it seems to be 2 crabs. Is this a baby underneath the larger one, or is it mating behavior?

The file is titled Oneor2crabs.jpg at

http://web.mac.com/kennedyim/iWeb/Diving/Point Lobos.html

I was not able to upload the file as an attachment.

Any suggestions would be welcome to satisfy my curiosity.

 

[Monkey Knife-fight]

There's the pic. I think crabs often have large size differences between male/female so this very well could be mating.

 

[D_O_H]

I have no scientific knowledge to back this up, but my intuition says you are a crab pornographer.

I've seen them (presumably) getting freaky like this before, but the size difference wasn't nearly as great.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

I captured a picture of what I initially thought was a big crab. On looking at it at home, it seems to be 2 crabs. Is this a baby underneath the larger one, or is it mating behavior?

And I say it's art!

Yes, these rock crabs are probably mating.
I dive in the Redondo submarine canyon throughout the year (SoCal), and it is Romance Central for crabs of all kinds. Spider crabs, elbow, Hemphill, masking, rock, swimming, sheep... everybody gets frisky all year long. Generally a larger crab is holding a smaller crab. When I see a crab carrying egg masses, it seems to be a smaller model of that species, so I assume that the females are the smaller crab of each couple.

I often find myself noticing the crabs, and humming "You must remember this.. A kiss is just a kiss.... "

It's art.

Claudette

 

[IanK]

Crab pornographer! Must put that on my CV.

 

[rhlee]

It must be that point in the cycle of the moon. Snapped this pic on Sunday on the BW wall:

... let's get it on....

 

[JustinW]

Kids, don't look!! Yes this is certainly the type of behavior that you think it is.

 

[Jim Ernst]

I was diving at Pt Lobos on Thursday and Friday. Vis was good at about 40ft on Thursday morning but got progressively worse as time went on.

I captured a picture of what I initially thought was a big crab. On looking at it at home, it seems to be 2 crabs. Is this a baby underneath the larger one, or is it mating behavior?

The file is titled Oneor2crabs.jpg at

http://web.mac.com/kennedyim/iWeb/Diving/Point Lobos.html

I was not able to upload the file as an attachment.

Any suggestions would be welcome to satisfy my curiosity.

IANK, ian i have lost all respect for you, how dare you put pornography on scubaboard,lol hi ian how are you my friend, isnt that underwater porn??? lol

 

[IanK]

Well, at least the big guy seems to be happy!

 

[lonerider00]

how do we know it wasn't crab rape???
:sappy: :007: :11:
all yall r sickos....... i like it, i like it!!!!!

:11: