Blue crab

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About Blue Crab
Blue crab is also spelled on its Latin name Callinectes sapidus. The olive green-and-white ‘blue crab’- so named for its brilliant blue claws - is a dominant benthic predator in the estuaries, lagoons and coastal habitats of the Western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. It walks sideways using its three middle pairs of legs and uses its sharp front pincer claws to defend itself and grasp prey. An adult female's apron is broad and rounded, while an immature female's is triangular. Red tips on the claws also indicate that the crab is female. Adult blue crabs are omnivorous. They feed on bivalves, crustaceans, fish, annelids, plants, detritus and nearly anything else they can find, including dead fish and plants. The blue crab's preferred foods emerge to be thin-shelled bivalves. When bivalves are scarce, cannibalism on juvenile crabs amplifies. Blue crabs arrive at maturity at approximately 12 to 18 months of age, growing to more or less five inches large. The standard lifespan of a crab is up to three years; on the other hand the greatest age may be as long as five to eight years. Underneath current levels of fishing pressure, most crabs live from one to two years beyond maturity.