What crabs live in the Black Sea. Marble crab (Pachygrapsus marmoratus)Engl

Description:

marble crab(Spider Crab, Spider Crab, Sea Spider) - Pachygrapsus marmoratus is the only Black Sea crab that runs out of the water onto coastal stones and rocks. It is a member of the Grapsidae family. The marble crab received its common name due to the moire pattern on its shell, which resembles noble marble. Marble crabs are also often called “spider crabs” due to their dark color and long legs.

The shape of the Sea Spider's shell is trapezoidal. The marble crab is small in size. Basically, the cephalothorax of an adult reaches a width of 45-50 mm. The maximum size is 6 centimeters. The upper surface of the flat carapace is sometimes overgrown with balanuses (small crustaceans) and algae.

The Marble Crab, like other representatives of the decapod crustacean genus, has ten strong and long legs. The two front legs are turned into claws. The walking legs of the Spider Crab are abundantly covered with hairs.

The marbled crab has a blue-green to dark brown shell, colored with many light stripes.

The sea spider is mainly found in shallow water among stones in the surf zone. In the sea, the crab lives at a depth of up to 10 meters. The marble crab can survive without water for some time, so it freely comes to land. But at the first danger, the Spider Crab instantly rushes into the water or hides in the nearest crack. During daylight hours, marble crabs hide under large stones, and at night they leave the sea and make trips to the shore. Under cover of night, these brave crabs can climb rocks to a height of 2-5 meters above sea level.

IN natural environment The marbled crab feeds on bottom invertebrates and organic debris.

Marble crab, as well as others black sea crabs, used for production souvenir products and for food, but it was never classified as a commercial species.

The lifespan of a marbled crab in natural conditions is 3-3.5 years. The marble crab is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, since lately its numbers were greatly reduced. Spider crab is protected in Ukrainian nature reserves Cape Martyan and Karadag.

Habitat:

The habitat of the marble crab covers the Black, Azov and Mediterranean seas, Atlantic Ocean from the North-West coast of France to the Azores. The marble crab is found on the coast of the Caucasus and the Crimean Peninsula at shallow depths with a rocky or rocky bottom.

WITH possession in an aquarium:

The marble crab is kept in a marine aquaterrarium, where the water salinity is 17-33% (desalinated water leads to the rapid death of the animal). The ratio of the sizes of the reservoir and land is 1:3, which is optimal.

The depth of the reservoir in the aquaterrarium should be 5-15 cm. The Spider Crab does not dig burrows; it prefers to hide under stones, so on the pebble or sandy bottom of the aquarium there should be many different shelters (stones, driftwood, ceramics). The aquaterrarium can be landscaped with living plants.

The water in the aquarium should be hard and its temperature should not exceed 25°C. Once a week it is necessary to replace 25% of the water with fresh water. Good filtration and aeration are also very important.

Marble crabs are unpretentious in nutrition. Diet in the aquarium sea spider includes bloodworms, tubifex, finely chopped vegetables, fruits and seafood (fish meat, shrimp).

Crabs

Subtype: Crustaceans Class: Higher crayfish Squad: Decapod crustaceans Suborder: Pleocyemata Infrasquad: Crabs Superfamily: Grapsoidea Family: Grapsidae Genus: Pachygrapsus View: marble crab Latin name Pachygrapsus marmoratus (Fabricius, 1793) Synonyms

Description

Area

The range of the marble crab covers the Black and Mediterranean Seas, the Atlantic Ocean from the North-West coast of France to the Azores. The marble crab is found on the coast of the Caucasus and the Crimean Peninsula at shallow depths with a rocky or rocky bottom. The marble crab is able to go ashore and do without water for some time. The number of marbled crab is small; it is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Protected in the Ukrainian nature reserves Cape Martyan and Karadag. A significant number of these crabs are caught uncontrollably to make handicraft souvenirs for sale to tourists.

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Marble crab underwater

Security Notes

It is listed as an endangered species in the Red Book of Ukraine. The number in the Black Sea is declining due to habitat pollution and uncontrolled fishing.

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing the Marble Crab

The officer praised the knife.
- Please take it for yourself. I have a lot of these...” Petya said, blushing. - Fathers! “I completely forgot,” he suddenly cried out. “I have wonderful raisins, you know, the kind without seeds.” We have a new sutler - and such wonderful things. I bought ten pounds. I'm used to something sweet. Do you want?.. - And Petya ran into the hallway to his Cossack and brought bags containing five pounds of raisins. - Eat, gentlemen, eat.
– Don’t you need a coffee pot? – he turned to Esaul. “I bought it from our sutler, it’s wonderful!” He has wonderful things. And he is very honest. This is the main thing. I will definitely send it to you. Or maybe flints have come out and become abundant - because this happens. I took with me, I have here... - he pointed to the bags, - a hundred flints. I bought it very cheap. Please take as much as you need, or that’s all... - And suddenly, afraid that he had lied, Petya stopped and blushed.
He began to remember if he had done anything else stupid. And, going through the memories of this day, the memory of the French drummer appeared to him. “That’s great for us, but what about him? Where did they take him? Was he fed? Did you offend me?" - he thought. But having noticed that he had lied about the flints, he was now afraid.
“You could ask,” he thought, “and they’ll say: the boy himself felt sorry for the boy. I'll show them tomorrow what a boy I am! Would you be embarrassed if I asked? - thought Petya. “Well, it doesn’t matter!” - and immediately, blushing and looking fearfully at the officers, to see if there would be mockery in their faces, he said:
– Can I call this boy who was captured? give him something to eat... maybe...
“Yes, pathetic boy,” Denisov said, apparently not finding anything shameful in this reminder. - Call him here. His name is Vincent Bosse. Call.
“I’ll call,” said Petya.
- Call, call. “Pitiful boy,” Denisov repeated.
Petya was standing at the door when Denisov said this. Petya crawled between the officers and came close to Denisov.
“Let me kiss you, my dear,” he said. - Oh, how great! how good! - And, having kissed Denisov, he ran into the yard.
- Bosse! Vincent! – Petya shouted, stopping at the door.
- Who do you want, sir? - said a voice from the darkness. Petya answered that the boy was French, who was taken today.
- A! Spring? - said the Cossack.
His name Vincent has already been changed: the Cossacks - into Vesenny, and the men and soldiers - into Visenya. In both adaptations, this reminder of spring coincided with the idea of a young boy.
“He was warming himself by the fire there.” Hey Visenya! Visenya! Spring! – voices and laughter were heard in the darkness.
“And the boy is smart,” said the hussar, standing next to Petya. “We fed him just now.” Passion was hungry!
Footsteps were heard in the darkness and, bare feet splashing in the mud, the drummer approached the door.
“Ah, c"est vous!" said Petya. “Voulez vous manger? N"ayez pas peur, on ne vous fera pas de mal,” he added, timidly and affectionately touching his hand. - Entrez, entrez. [Oh, it's you! Are you hungry? Don't be afraid, they won't do anything to you. Enter, enter.]
“Merci, monsieur, [Thank you, sir.],” answered the drummer in a trembling, almost childish voice and began to wipe his dirty feet on the threshold. Petya wanted to say a lot to the drummer, but he didn’t dare. He stood next to him in the hallway, shifting. Then in the darkness I took his hand and shook it.

Names: marble crab, spider crab, sea spider.

Area: Black and Mediterranean seas, Atlantic Ocean (coast of France and Morocco).

Description: marble crab is small, agile, with a flat, square shell (size 3.5x4.5 cm). The edge of the front side between the eyes is particularly straight and wide with three sharp teeth on each side. Breathes through gills. External skeleton. Left claw, with small, tightly closed teeth. The right claw, larger, with curved teeth and a gap in the middle, looks like forceps. The crab's legs are long and covered with hairs.

Color: the shell is greenish-brown to violet-brown, covered with a wavy pattern similar to marble.

Size: length - 38 mm, width - 43 mm.

Lifespan: 3 years.

Habitat: coastal zone: at the very edge of the water and even outside the water (up to 5 m). The marbled crab lives on rocks, in the cracks of breakwaters, piers or similar places.

Food/food: remains of animals and plants, mollusks, polychaetes, plankton.

Behavior: The marble crab climbs onto stones and rocks protruding from the water and cleans their surfaces. At the slightest danger, it quickly crawls into the nearest crevice, and in its absence, it rushes into the sea. The crab easily tolerates drying out and loves to bask on sunlit rocks. Builds a home. Having chosen a stone, it begins to squeeze under it - pulling out sand and small stones with its claws and pushing out sand and small stones with its paws, the marble crab hides in the resulting niche. Having fed well and accumulated nutritional reserves, it hides in a safe shelter. At night, he carefully climbs out of his old shell. Lost legs and the claws are restored after two or three molts. The marble crab is perfectly camouflaged among mussels and algae. Doesn't know how to bury itself in sand.

Reproduction: one female can lay up to 87 thousand eggs.

Breeding season/period: July-August (at a water temperature of 17"C).

Puberty: females mature at 2 years.

Pregnancy/incubation: 25 days.

Offspring: Crab larvae feed on plankton. Metamorphosis with 4 stages.

Population/Conservation Status: The marbled crab is included in the Red Book of Ukraine.

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Crabs are arthropods from the order of decapod crustaceans, also known as short-tailed crayfish. Modern classification has more than 6,780 species of crabs, many live only in the seas, others tolerate salted and fresh water. Several dozen species of crabs inhabit territorial waters Russia.

Since ancient times, crabs have been an important commercial item; their meat is tasty and considered a delicacy. Thanks to their omnivorous nature, crabs eat everything they can find, watch and catch. Massive claws are the crab's main weapon and means of obtaining food. What do crabs that live in Russian waters eat?

Sand crab (Xantho poressa)

This is a small crab, with a shell width of up to 4.2 cm. It is colored grayish-green with dark speckles, sometimes with a blue or purple tint. It feeds on small benthic invertebrates and decomposed organic matter.

Found off the coast of Crimea and the Caucasus, found in the Mediterranean Sea and off the coast Canary Islands. The sand crab is extremely slow, rarely goes to a depth of more than 15 m, and prefers shallow water with a pebble or sandy bottom.

Sand crab (Xantho poressa).

Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis)

An extremely unpretentious species, originally lived exclusively in the Yellow Sea, but at the beginning of the 20th century, with ballast waters, it accidentally ended up in Europe and today it is found even on the Volga and in Lake Onega. It feeds on everything it finds at the bottom: shellfish, fish remains and algae.

Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus)

In the early 20th century, blue crabs were native Atlantic coast appeared in European waters and today they are found in the North, Baltic, Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. The carapace, up to 20 cm wide, is brown, gray, greenish or bluish with wide (up to 8 cm) orange spines on the sides.

It is found at depths of up to 36 m and competes quite aggressively for food with other crayfish. Eats everything that crabs eat: shellfish, small fish, worms, sea urchins, aquatic vegetation and carrion. But unlike many relatives, when there is a lack of food, he practices cannibalism.

Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus).

Common snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio)

Inhabitant of the cold waters of the Bering, Okhotsk and Barents seas found at a depth of up to 100 m. The shell of males reaches a width of 16 cm, the color is usually reddish, and turns green before molting.

Consumes food starfish, sponges and bryozoans, shrimp, amphipods, dead fish and other crustaceans. The plant part of the diet consists of various algae.

Common snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio), large and small.

Marble crab (Pachygrapsus marmoratus)

A rare species of crabs listed in the Red Book. Lives in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, most often found in the coastal waters of Sochi and Abkhazia. A medium-sized crab, with a carapace width of up to 10 cm, a characteristic “marble” color and long legs covered with spiny hairs.

It obtains food consisting of invertebrates and organic remains on the rocky bottom, occasionally comes ashore and can do without water for some time.

Marble crab (Pachygrapsus marmoratus).

Grass crab (Carcinus aestuarii)

Found off the coast of the Black and Azov seas, as well as in many reservoirs of the basin Mediterranean Sea. A medium-sized crab, with a shell up to 8 cm wide, painted grass-green. It has small claws, so it defends itself poorly and, in case of danger, runs away sideways at a speed of up to 1 m/sec.

It obtains food from ambush, hunting mussels, shrimp, small gastropods and fish fry. Willingly eats carrion and algae in coastal lagoons and bays.

Grass crab (Carcinus aestuarii), female with eggs.

Grass crab (Carcinus aestuarii).

Four-cornered hairy crab (Erimacrus isenbeckii)

Lives in cold waters from the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Eastern Passage. This is a medium-sized crab with an almost equilateral shell, up to 12 cm in diameter. The limbs and shell are densely strewn with short, stiff hairs.

The animal's diet is similar to that of many crab species and includes gastropods and small crustaceans.

Four-cornered hairy crab (Erimacrus isenbeckii).