The Norway King Crab

The Norway King Crab, Lithodes maja or stone crab, is a large crab (up to 1.2 m!) that has dangerous looking spines to deter predators.  The last pair of legs is small, hidden inside the shell, and used to clean the gills. A close relative is the very different hermit crab that lives in snail shells. Living at depths of 65 to 800 m, this is a deep-sea species. We have a young one on display at the aquarium, and as stated in our last post, it decided to moult. I have included two pictures we took of him yesterday, and in one of them, you can see the remnants of its old shell. The crab will eat part of this old shell to regain some of the minerals needed to re-harden its new shell.