Diving the Kona Coast: crab

Showing posts with label crab. Show all posts

Friday, May 2, 2014

Blue-eyed Crab

rainbow swimming crab Charbdis erythrodactyla

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Peeping Crab

red swimming crab Charybdis paucidentata

Friday, June 1, 2012

Aloha, everybody! As you can see, I am woefully behind on posts and am probably too busy with my family, gardening, job and diving to be anything resembling a competent and dedicated blogger. My apologies.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some sights from a (not so) recent night dive I took down in Honaunau Bay. Lots of neat stuff comes out at night that daytime snorkelers and divers seldom get to see!

We'll start out with crustaceans, specifically lobsters. Above is a robust example of a tufted spiny lobster (Panulirus peniciliatus). I occasionally see these crammed way back in lava tubes during the day, but at night they come out to wander the reef. As soon as light hits them they retreat back into the reef. They are big and, like their Maine brethren, quite edible. As you can see they lack large claws and rely on their spiny carapaces for defense.

The strange looking creature above is a sculptured slipper lobster (Parribacus antarcticus). Slipper lobsters have antennae that are reduced to thin plates, giving them the additional moniker of shovel-nosed lobsters. Sculptured slipper lobsters are flat and wide. When stationary, their legs are covered by the carapace and the creature blends into the reef quite well. There is something about them that puts me in mind of a military tank.

Vibrant by comparison, the regal slipper lobster (Arctides regalis) is hard to overlook. Its blue-grey base color is contrasted by generous amounts of bright red and orange. This photo was recently published on the "Island Life" page of our local newspaper West Hawai'i Today".

Tucked securely in it's nook, this convex crab (Carpilius convexus) appears to be weighing it's options before heading out onto the reef. It's caution is justified as, even in the darkness, highly effective hunters are lurking like the undulated moray eel (Gymnothorax undulatus) pictured below.

The two photos directly above are of different types of small scorpionfish that come out at night to feed. Diurnal scorpionfish are medium-sized and extravagantly camouflaged to blend with their surrounding. By comparison, their nocturnal cousins are small and brightly decorated. Uppermost photo is a dwarf scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis fowleri) and the bottom one is a lowfin scorpionfish (Scorpaenodes parvipinnis).

We end this post as it began, with a crustacean. This Hiatt's hinge-beak shrimp (Cinetorhynchus hiatti) emerges at night with legions of its species to forage the reef. It has kinda crazy-looking eyes!

Well, that's it for this time! Hope to post again soon!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Mystery Crab

I saw this tiny crab on a recent twilight dive at Honaunau and have been unable to identify it. It seems like the distinctive heart-shaped white area on the carapace would make ID simple, but I haven't seen anything like it in my reference books or on the web. Any help in making the identification would be greatly appreciated!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Bloody Hermit Crab

Today I'm posting some photos I took recently of a hermit crab that let me take some extreme close-ups. This particular species is called a Bloody Hermit Crab, owing to the red markings on its claw-bearing extremities. This one appears to be inhabiting the shell of a Textile Cone, but the shell is so heavily encrusted that it's difficult to be certain.

The last photo is my favorite. It's kind of a profile portrait and the crab looks a little wistful, a quality seldom associated with crustaceans!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Rainbow Swimming Crab

I know I haven't been posting much in the way of fish photos recently, but I've just been having great luck finding fascinating invertebrates. This past weekend the surf was almost non-existent at Honaunau Bay which allowed me to explore some lava tubes along the northern shoreline. In the last tube I found a pair of these vividly colored Rainbow Swimming Crabs. Swimming crabs are unique in having a flattened pair of hindmost legs. When pumped furiously, these legs propel the crab awkwardly up into the water column although this action only loosely resembles swimming. It is probably an adequate defense against some of the slower predators it may encounter.

I found two of these crustaceans in separate locales within the same lava tube. Unfortunately, another bad aspect of my new SeaLife DC1200 camera is that it drains batteries very quickly. Battery power died during my session with these creatures, but I did get a couple decent images.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Convex Crabs in Love

Recently, I was swimming through a lava tube when I saw a Convex Crab (Carpillus convexus) hiding under a small ledge. It was partially obscured by a rock, but the crab remained still which is uncharacteristic of the type. After taking a few photos, I decided to move the rock since the animal was being so agreeable. It was then I saw that it was perched upon another Convex Crab that was flipped on its back.

For all my years of diving, I had never given much thought to how crabs go about making little baby crabs so I wasn't certain of what I was looking at. Other than mating, I thought it could be a territorial dispute or maybe even slow-motion cannibalism. After getting back to my computer, I confirmed my original opinion that this was, indeed, sweet crustacean love-making.

The process looks pretty clumsy for two participants who are fairly graceless to begin with, but it obviously works out well as crabs are not in short supply!

Diving the Kona Coast