Comments on: King Kong Crab

By: Joe Wong

Joe Wong — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:14:04 +0000

Saw the same crab on 11/29/09 in Lembeh while staying at Kasawari. Just load one pic to flickr for reference.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonniewai/sets/72157622872936193/

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:09:39 +0000

Thanks Ron. I agree. It’s most probably a close relative, but the appearance and behavior suggest it’s not the same species.

Cheers,

Tony

By: Ron Silver

Ron Silver — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:43:22 +0000

Appears to be a spider crab of some sort but I would not think it’s the orang-utan crab.

By: tony

tony — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:01:44 +0000

Hi Stéphane,

Yes, this is the same crab! Hope you had a great time in Lembeh.

Cheers,

Tony

By: Stéphane

Stéphane — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:48:22 +0000

I was in Lembeh from the end of October till last week.

Seems it is from the same family.

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/images/upload/steph/ssa_2257_197.jpg

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/images/upload/steph/ssa_2259_668.jpg

For the dive site it was on sand (beach) a few hundred meters after magic rocks.

By: tony

tony — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:32:37 +0000

The second one also doesn’t really have hair. The lighting makes it look a bit fuzzy, but it was the same texture.

The body shapes are very similar to the normal orangutan crabs. It’s just the hair/ lack of hair, red/ white eyes, and the fact that I’ve always seen these hairless ones out in the open or nearly in the open, whereas the hairy ones seem always to be associated with bubble coral, an anemone or something similar.

I don’t really know enough about them though. It’s a mystery.

For the time being…they’re still King Kong crabs for me

By: Mike V

Mike V — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:27:04 +0000

It does look like the third photo here, but wrong colour on the eyes
http://www.seadb.univpm.it/en_Orang-utan-crab-Achaeus-japonicus_54.htm

By: Mike V

Mike V — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:24:21 +0000

ya, looking over the two i am not sure, the second one certainly looks japonicus but the first one looks like someone took the clippers to it

I was just shooting them at jahir the other day, gave up after 3 shots because of boring rocky bottom. haha mine also have the white eyes but more hairy like your second one

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:04:17 +0000

Thanks everyone.

Mike: Is this the same as the hairy orangutan crab (Achaeus japonicus)? These crabs weren’t hairy (they were velvety), and had white eyes instead of the usual red.

Plus, the first one was lumbering around out in the open across the rocks. Not something I normally associate with the hairy orangutan crabs, though quite normal for these hairless crabs. The second one wasn’t walking around, but still relatively hair-free.

By: Vivian

Vivian — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:56:16 +0000

I followed a small hot-pink crab (similar to the crab in your first photo) when I was in Lembeh this Sep. I loved it. It looked like a martial arts exponent, moving rapidly and stopping occasionally in its kungfu poses! )