Japanese spider crab

Giant size Japanese spider crab is a creature with giant legs leaving you with the image of big size sea monster. Many stories have been spread regarding this gigantic sea crab. It is said that this sea crab eats up dead bodies of human who dies under the sea. It is a true story because Japanese spider crab eats up whatever find at the bottom of the sea. It is eventually known that jungles of Japan are also the place for these gigantic crabs, though this fact is quite questionable.

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Scientific name of these crabs is Macrocheira kaempferi and hails from arthropod family. Length of the legs is 4 cm with the body size of 37 cm and the weight of 20 kg. It is like the sea turtle in terms of its leg size and life span of 100 years.

The number of legs and arms is 8 and 2 respectively. Male arms are longer than female ones. Colors of Japanese Spider crab are usually red. Horns, gets shorter with age, are placed in between two eyes. For protection from the predator, few crabs are shelled with sponges and sea anemones.

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Japanese spider crabs are generally found in Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago. It goes down up to 150m to 800m inside the sea, but limits their lower depth up to 200m. While laying eggs, they plunge up to 50m depth.

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Many lip smacking dishes in some bays like Sagami and Suruga are made from this Japanese spider crab and found in various aquariums for tourism sake.