Photo: Blue Rose Man · Image source ·CC0
Animal profile · Crustaceans · Coldwater crab
Snow crab
Chionoecetes opilio
Snow crabs are long-legged cold-water crabs with a soft-looking, spiny shell. They live on sandy or muddy seafloors in northern oceans.
Not a fish · an aquatic neighborWater
Saltwater
Soft sandy or muddy bottoms on northern continental shelves.
Temperature
Range not established
A dependable species-specific wild temperature range was not established from the reviewed sources, so both values are null.
Size
Males up to about 15 cm (6 in) shell width
About as wide as a paperback book
Lifespan
May live up to about 20 years.
Life expectancy varies with place, conditions, and what scientists have been able to observe.
01 · Signature adaptation
What does it do?
It grows by molting, and adults undergo a final molt after which they stop growing. Larvae drift in the water column before settling on the bottom.
02 · Home coordinates
Where does it live?
Arctic and subarctic waters of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, including Alaska’s Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas.
Regions: Bering Sea · Beaufort Sea · Chukchi Sea · North Atlantic
03 · The menu
What does it eat?
It catches small animals, grazes on plants, and scavenges dead material.
Omnivore and scavenger: fish, shrimp, clams, worms, snails, algae, sponges, carrion.
04 · Remember this
Two wow facts
Final molt
After sexual maturity, both sexes undergo a terminal molt and no longer molt again.
Sources [1]
Nearly 100,000 eggs
A large female can carry almost 100,000 eggs beneath her abdomen.
Sources [1]