This might be the most beautiful member of the whole family, and it finally gets a [...]
Good morning, I have a cool little crab (about 2 inches wide) from the recent Statia expedition found with a deep-sea submersible by scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and Substation Curacao. Crabs are not always easy to photograph! This one here kept burying himself in the sand with [...]
Hello readers, I have a monster sized crab for you this morning with one of those faces that only an underwater photographer and it’s mother could love. Many of my long time followers know the love I have for any kind of crab and it’s a love that has grown or come from spending hours or days [...]
Porcelain Crabs and Squat Lobsters are neither true crabs nor true lobsters; they are actually Galatheoids, and are more closely related to hermit crabs. Most of the tiny squat lobsters and porcelain crabs you'd find as hitchhikers or for sale at your LFS are reef safe and peaceful. They are [...]
Dendronephthya Crab, Hoplophrys oatesi Photo by Rickard Zerpe In this edition of Inverts We Wish We Could Have, which showcases unique invertebrates that are rarely or never seen in the aquarium trade, we spotlight the Dendronephthya Crab, Hoplophrys oatesi. The genus Hoplophrys is monotypic, [...]
I’ve been a big fan of arrow crabs since I first saw one in a dealer’s tank, many years ago. I did consider buying it, but fortunately I had the good sense to do a bit of reading beforehand and I realized that these striking animals might not be for me, and may well have become a prey item. [...]
Candy Stripe Hermit Crab (Pylopaguropsis mollymullerae) Photo Credit: Ellen Muller ( In this new series, “Inverts We Wish We Could Have”, I will showcase lesser known, unique invertebrates that are very rarely, or not at all, collected for the aquarium industry. In this first installment of [...]
Platypodiella spectabilis Credit: Ellen Muller With all due respect to Neoliomera, perhaps the most coveted carcinological treasure to be found on coral reefs are the Clown Crabs of the genus Platypodiella. Like a red and yellow Rorschach test, these diminutive invertebrates epitomize the [...]
