Very bad news guys...
Remember that huge crab bloom that we had last month in the LI Sound that spread billions of tiny crabs from Rocky Point all the way to the City bridges and everywhere in between? Well I kept a dozen of those critters in my saltwater tank to see what they would grow up to be.
The bad news is that they are Asian Shore Crabs (Hemigrapsus Sanguineus), also known as Japanese Shore Crabs. I learned about this invasive species last month when we were talking about keeping green crabs alive. Capt. Marc gave us a link to a site that describes these critters. The crabs from that hatch are the same crab. Those tiny crabs have been eating about three times their body weight EVERY DAY and are growning very fast.
I was so disturbed by my discovery that I took a ride last night to several North shore beaches to see if the crabs were still floating around the Sound. I didn't see any in the water but when I turned over a few rocks, there they were -thousands of them! At EVERY beach I not only found thousands of tiny Japanese Shore crabs but I also found dozens of larger ones. I took a few of the larger specimens home to observe in the tank.
Man, these things are mean looking. They have claws that are so fat that they look like boxing gloves. I also spent a few hours on the internet doing research and found out that they are so powerful that when they see a blue claw crab twice their size, they rip the blue's claws right off of it's body like it was butter. They have huge appetites that consist of everything they could get their claws on including clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, other crabs and possibly baby lobsters! They also eat the macro algea that many of our native species depend upon.
As we saw last month, this species has the ability to reproduce like no other crab we have ever seen in these waters (go back and read the thread under "Crab Bloom". I took some photos of these crabs and will try to have them for you guys shorty. Tonight I am going to put a green crab in the tank next to the Japanese Crabs to see if I can video tape this great power. I think I am also going to write an article for the local newspapers to report my findings. The most depressing part is that when I usually turn over those shore rocks I find a huge variety of species such as fiddler crabs, sand worms, baby eels, grass shrimp, stone crabs, hermit crabs, etc... But it appears that these Japanese Shore Crabs have either eaten all the other species under their rocks or have driven them out with their muscles.
This cannot be good!!!!!
Captain Marc or anyone else, do you know if there is a federal agency or a local group that would be interested in hearing from me about this?
Here are a few links if anyone wants to read about this terrible invader;
Asian Shore Crab
NY Times on Japanese Shore Crab
Remember that huge crab bloom that we had last month in the LI Sound that spread billions of tiny crabs from Rocky Point all the way to the City bridges and everywhere in between? Well I kept a dozen of those critters in my saltwater tank to see what they would grow up to be.
The bad news is that they are Asian Shore Crabs (Hemigrapsus Sanguineus), also known as Japanese Shore Crabs. I learned about this invasive species last month when we were talking about keeping green crabs alive. Capt. Marc gave us a link to a site that describes these critters. The crabs from that hatch are the same crab. Those tiny crabs have been eating about three times their body weight EVERY DAY and are growning very fast.
I was so disturbed by my discovery that I took a ride last night to several North shore beaches to see if the crabs were still floating around the Sound. I didn't see any in the water but when I turned over a few rocks, there they were -thousands of them! At EVERY beach I not only found thousands of tiny Japanese Shore crabs but I also found dozens of larger ones. I took a few of the larger specimens home to observe in the tank.
Man, these things are mean looking. They have claws that are so fat that they look like boxing gloves. I also spent a few hours on the internet doing research and found out that they are so powerful that when they see a blue claw crab twice their size, they rip the blue's claws right off of it's body like it was butter. They have huge appetites that consist of everything they could get their claws on including clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, other crabs and possibly baby lobsters! They also eat the macro algea that many of our native species depend upon.
As we saw last month, this species has the ability to reproduce like no other crab we have ever seen in these waters (go back and read the thread under "Crab Bloom". I took some photos of these crabs and will try to have them for you guys shorty. Tonight I am going to put a green crab in the tank next to the Japanese Crabs to see if I can video tape this great power. I think I am also going to write an article for the local newspapers to report my findings. The most depressing part is that when I usually turn over those shore rocks I find a huge variety of species such as fiddler crabs, sand worms, baby eels, grass shrimp, stone crabs, hermit crabs, etc... But it appears that these Japanese Shore Crabs have either eaten all the other species under their rocks or have driven them out with their muscles.
This cannot be good!!!!!
Captain Marc or anyone else, do you know if there is a federal agency or a local group that would be interested in hearing from me about this?
Here are a few links if anyone wants to read about this terrible invader;
Asian Shore Crab
NY Times on Japanese Shore Crab