Giant crab
Giant crab
Macrocheira kaempferi
Maximum span: 3.80 metres
Found in the Eastern Pacific, the world’s largest crab can live at a depth of up to 300 metres. A veritable living fossil, it has haunted the deep seas for 500 million years.
The three giant crabs on show at the Grand Aquarium arrived from Japan in March 2007 and are very well-acclimatised in their new living space. Our biologists have concocted a diet for them consisting of fish fillets, cuttlefish, shrimps and algae. They measure approximately 1.30 metres across and we are impatiently awaiting their next moult …
The shell, a real coat of protective armour, forces the crab to moult throughout its entire life. In fact, like all crustaceans, it has an outer shell made of chitin, a substance secreted by the skin. As this shell is not extensible, the creature has to get rid of it and make a new one when it grows. The new carapace is soft and hardens in the days that follow the moult.
Chitin is used today in the manufacture of artificial skin, in cosmetics, dental surgery and agriculture.
The ocean is a wonderful store of biological resources and it is vital that we preserve the treasures it
