The Ocean is full of interesting creatures. Find some colorful plush crab stuffed animals at the Oceanarium.
The crabs on this page include Claude
the ty dyed Beanie Baby crab stuffed animal and the big orange fellow at top is Digger the Beanie Buddy. The large orange Dungeness Crab plush toy is at center. We also have a little purple shore crab stuffed animal from Wild Republic and the pink crab stuffed animal is Elmira from Douglas Cuddle Toy. The blue-legged crab stuffed animal is Buster, also from Douglas. We have a plush toy hermit crab stuffed animal shown at top left and a plush toy green crab refrigerator magnet.The Hermit Crabs are from Folkmanis, Wild Republic, Wildlife Artists and Safari Ltd. You can find these at our sponsor's online Gift Shop.
Crabs and lobsters are crustaceans (Crustacea). There are 26,000 species in the world. Most of them live in or near saltwater. They have jointed legs, two pairs of antennae and an external skeleton. The skeleton is molted periodically.
The light blue ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata) blends in with the white sand on a cloudy afternoon or evening. On sunny days its shadow and its black eyes on long stalks are easily seen and the animal will remain hidden until nightfall. Large numbers of ghost crabs live on the sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Florida. They live in the sand dunes and dig burrows in the sand on the seashore side of the dunes, which are just out of reach of the high tide.
Hermit Crabs are a large group of creatures which, from the front look like crabs, with the pincher claws, the long antennae, and the stalked eyes that we find in crabs. The abdomen of a hermit crab, however, instead of being protected with a hard covering, as in most crabs, is soft and, usually, tapering. To provide a covering for its unprotected body, and a home into which it can retreat from danger, the hermit crab moves into an empty snail shell. Outgrowing one shell, it crawls out of it and hunts for a larger one. If it sees many shells available and no enemy approaching, the hermit crab will spend considerable time trying out several shells for size, balance, and feel, twirling the shell around with its feet, and probing the recesses with its antennae. Finally, when a satisfactory home has been found, the hermit crab pushes its tail into the opening and settles down for another term.
Pagurus longicarpus, a common small species, lives in the small shail shells found in shallow backwaters or tidal pools along the Atlantic coast. Larger species live in the deeper waters along the same coast. Some very large hermit crabs, twelve to eighteen inches long, are extremely common along the Pacific coast.
