JAPANESE SPIDER CRAB  Macrocheira kaempferi

I am commonly found by the islands of Konshu and Kyushu. I am found between the latitudes 30 and 40 degrees north. They can be found in the Sagami, Suruga, and Tosa bays, as and off the coast of the Kii peninsula.

I have been found as far south as Su-ao, in Eastern Taiwan. the Japanese giant spider crab is the largest known living arthropod. Adults can reach nearly 4 meters long from one tip of one cheliped (a claw-bearing leg) to the other when stretched apart.

Females tend to have wider, although slightly smaller, abdomens than males. I tend to be orange with a bunch of white spots allover my body. Once I'm an adult I my body tends to stay the same size but my legs lengthen as I get older.

I live at an average depth of 150m-300, but have also been found as deep as 600m. I can weigh any where from 16kg to 20kg. I can also live to be 100yrs old.

I mainly scavenge the bottom of the ocean floor for food to find decaying carcasses. I am an omnivore. I will also feed on algae and macroalgae.

Legend say that I have been described as feeding on the bodies of drowned sailors. This would only be true if they were dead and decomposing.

I am about 30lbs and I am 40yrs old. They call me crabzilla I was captured and am now at an aquarium. I am the largest live captured spider crab today.

This is a large male spider carb. It can reach about 12ft front the tip of the pincher to the body of the crab.

I usually mate in the early spring between January and April. I can lay up to about 1,500,000 eggs a season.

Random facts I usually scavenge for food alone. I am harmless to humans do to my small pinchers. I am not endangered but am heavily fish and sold. I am a very expensive delicacy in japan.

only around 75% survive the first zoeal stage. This number drops to around 33% for the second zoeal and megalopa stages. Which means not may survive past the first few months of their early months.