Crab in Cozumel

[Ren127]

Please help me figure out what kind of crab this is. I still don't know how our DM Tony (Scuba Club Cozumel) found this guy. It was on a night dive on Paradise Reef. He said he saw the "grass moving"- that's about what this guy looked like.... Sargassum crab??


Thanks,
Lauren

 

[vincent54]

It looks like a decorator crab. They cover themselves with all sorts of things. He looks like he is wearing Versace. Cool photo. Thanks

 

[herbdb]

The Sargassum crab hides by coloration not by a seaweed look. Decorator crabs have a more substantial body. I'll check my books and see if I can find something.

Here are two crabs, I found on a night dive in front of SCC in April. One shot when they were still another while moving. They just disappear. Fun to find and watch. I spotted these guys because they were moving into the current.

 

[Ren127]

They just disappear. Fun to find and watch.

I saw several of them too- they were fun- they just kinda backed into the sand and were gone.


Thanks for the help- the only decorators I've seen haven't been quite this well "decorated" and have been bigger. The DM said in 27 years of diving he'd never seen anything like it.

 

[herbdb]

I checked my books and I may be wrong, my reef guide has some species of Decorator Crabs with spindle shaped bodies. It also could be a Neck Crab which is closely related. I think you would need to strip off the camo to tell for sure.

Nice find.

 

[vincent54]

Decorator arrow crabs will have a small body, long legs and long claws.