Decorator Crab Gets into the Festive Spirit

An exotic crab species which usually decorates its shell with seaweed and sponges is getting into the Christmas spirit at Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium by covering itself in tinsel and tiny baubles.

In the wild decorator crabs use pieces of seaweed and even small animals from their surroundings as camouflage.

Once a suitable covering is found, the crab snips it off with its pincers, coats the end with a special glue-like secretion that hardens in seawater, and carefully places it onto its shell which is covered by a Velcro-like material.

Blue Reef's Matt Slater said: "Decorator crabs have an in-built instinct to match their surroundings - no matter how unusual they are. This not only disguises them from would-be predators but also allows them to sneak up on unsuspecting prey.

"We had heard about experiments in America where a variety of different materials; ribbons, cotton and wool were placed into a decorator crab's aquarium.

"Within days the crab had covered itself in the new items and we thought that as it's Christmas, we would see whether our crab could be persuaded to decorate itself with tinsel and baubles.

"I have to say we were all a bit sceptical but to our surprise almost as soon as the new objects had been placed into the display he went over to investigate them and started trying them on!

"He's now pretty much covered in a mixture of coloured tinsel, ribbons and miniature baubles.

"It's amazing to see how quickly he was able to adapt to his new surroundings and goes to show how these crabs manage to survive successfully in so many different habitats in the wild," added Matt.

Decorator crabs are members of the spider crab family and different species are found throughout the world's oceans.