Pictures and text:  Rudolf  Svensen

Spider Crabs often have algae growing on their shells. They have very long legs, and seem to feel happy among the seaweed on shallow water where they can hide from predators like other crabs, squat lobsters and wrasses. I mostly finds Spider Crabs on night dives when they move around, hunting for food like small shrimps, bristleworms and amphipods . If you point your torch against a Spider Crab, it will “freeze” and it normally does not move as long as you watch it.

The crab on this image was spotted a late evening in January on the bay just outside my house on the island Hundvaag close to downtown Stavanger . It sat in the seaweed at a depth of 3 metres. I left it there in the dark and continued down the sloping seabed to look for fishes like Common Hake, Bull Rout or Starry Skates that is quite common on this time of the year. .