Pic of the Day – Feeling Crabby

Spotted Porcelain Crab – Neopetrolisthes maculatus

I will admit that I am feeling a bit crabby today. The rains have returned after a blissful stretch of warm and sunny weather here in Vancouver. In the span of a few lovely days, during which our garden literally sprung into Spring, things like narcissus and hyacinths started flowering madly. Shoots of perennials, coaxed by the sun, and big pregnant buds on the magnolias and lilacs swelled, ready to burst out into riots of colour. And the heavy rain just makes it all a soggy, sad mess out there in the back forty on days like these.

Yesterday I shared a Hairy Squat Lobster – and why this thing is a lobster, and not a crab, I leave to the critter pros out there to define. A quick search I did brought up some nasty info on crabs vs lobsters making their homes on humans’ naughty bits and how to rid oneself of them. Yuckers. After that unsavoury info, I did not have the desire to delve any deeper ;^)

Today’s crustacean, the Spotted Porcelain Crab (about 1 inch across on its carapace), specifically inhabits carpet anemones (which have short tendrils, and beautiful spotted undersides). There is very often a pair of these crabs in residence, but again, like many crustaceans, they are camera shy, and getting one still, on an often undulating anemone, can be another exercise in frustration. You are probably getting that I can be frustrated quite easily while taking pictures underwater, and this is true. Never the world’s most patient person, I can be sorely tested by trying to photograph critters that aren’t easily captured (with a camera). Still, there is much satisfaction in actually sticking it out, and getting a decent shot…

Awoosh.com Images

The Spotted Porcelain Crab deploys those frondy thingies to sweep the water for tasty tidbits, in an action quite similar to a barnacle. It then swipes the frond through its mouth to scrape off the stuff to ingest.

About Judy G Diver

Born and raised on the west coast of Canada, I have always felt a strong connection to the sea. But for many years, I stayed on the surface, afraid of what lurked down deep. When I was in my early 30's, with three young children (aka the P's), my husband (aka Mr G) signed us up for a SCUBA certification course, as a surprise. Although I had my fears, my stubbornness prevailed, and somehow I made it through four murky, frigid, cold water dives in Vancouver to successfully pass the course. Soon after we went diving off the west coast of Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez, where my eyes were opened to the beauty and other-worldliness of the life down under. And the rest, as they say, is history. I currently have well over 2000 dives under the belt, and I have been fortunate to travel and dive in Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, Palau, Philippines, Galapagos, Costa Rica, Hawaii, California, Egypt, Mexico, several islands in the Caribbean, and here in British Columbia. In addition to this blog and my personal website (Awoosh.com/Directory), which is linked at the top of the blog, my stuff has been published in a variety of magazines and websites, including a regular monthly feature for Scubadiving Magazine for several years. All links to this work can be found in this blog.
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