#stone crab

[unbfacts]

Stone crabs can regrow their claws, allowing one claw to be harvested without harming the crab. This natural regeneration supports sustainable seafood practices.

[designedgentleman]

[pleistocene-pride]

The Florida stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) is a species of true crab native to the coastal waters and salt marshes of the western North Atlantic, from Connecticut to Colombia, including throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Stone crabs typically inhabit shallower waters some 1 to 6.5ft (.3 to 2m) deep often digging and residing in holes on the ocean bottom, oyster reefs, docks, jetties, or rock mounts. Here they tend to spend there days, emerging usually at night to feed up on oysters and other small mollusks, sea grass, carrion, polychaete worms, and other crustaceans. Reaching around 5 to 6.5 inches (125 to 165mm) in carapace length, stone crabs are sexually dimphoric with males growing proportionally larger claws while females tend to reach larger sizes overall. Both sexes are brownish red in coloration with gray spots and a tan underside, sporting large black tipped claws. The Florida stone crab loses its limbs easily to escape from predators or tight spaces, but their limbs will grow back. When a claw is broken such that the diaphragm at the body/claw joint is left intact, the wound will quickly heal itself and very little blood is lost. If, however, the claw is broken in the wrong place, more blood is lost and the crab's chances of survival are much lower. Each time the crab molts, the new claw grows larger. The breeding season of the Florida Stone Crab lasts the whole of spring and summer. The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt her exoskeleton before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season, producing up to a million eggs total. The larvae go through six stages in about four weeks before emerging as juvenile crabs, continuing to molt and grow they reach sexual maturity at about 2 years of age. Under ideal conditions a Florida stone crab may live upwards of 8 years.

[ketrinadrawsalot]

CRUST-aceans: Stone Crab

[cookinginthekeys]

Florida! Fresh stone crab claws 🦀 in Key Largo, Florida! 🏝️ These local delicacies are a true taste of the Keys—sweet, succulent, and perfect for dipping in tangy mustard sauce. 🌊 Treat yourself to the ultimate Florida Keys dining experience! Recipe: https://cookinginthekeys.com/florida-keys-stone-crabs/

[nightmaresyrup]

An Ishikani, is a crab like creature with a stone body stalked eyes and multiple fingers for legs! It was the day 5 haunting on Ino Mononoke Roku.

[natureatlogans]

Found a new crab I had not seen before! Stone crabs!

Currently in my state (Texas) you can only harvest the right claw of the stone crab and then you must return the crab back to the water. Just thought that was interesting!

[alekivz]

doing some limited palette & heavy pen linework stuff. the shrimp feels out of place & the layout isn’t great...  but it was fun practice!