View allAll Photos Tagged Bubble_Crab
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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These little guys were all over the beach in Borneo. Any movement would send them scurrying into their holes, but if you waited long enough and didn't move you could see them emerge. They slowly comb the beach, never moving more than a few inches from their protective holes. They take sand into their mouths, suck out the nutrients, and spit out the tiny balls you see here... about one ball every 15 seconds. After each tide the cycle continues.
See more of their handiwork on a larger scale here:
Shell of a Sand Bubbler Crab on Mekaki Beach. Lots of it can be found when molting times. Normally, they are black, but, well... Like when you cook your crab or lobster, it's shell will turn red.
Who is the chef of this crab shell? The sun, perhaps, helped by a big-black-hot-stones around the beach.
More about tubeworms and about this crab on wildsingapore.
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These pellets amazed me when saw them while out for an early morning walk on Moreton Bay. See another quite informative photo on Sand Bubbler Crab Pellets by Stewf
The crabs collect sand, sift through it in search off microscopic nutrient material (detritus) between each grain, then gather it into a sphere and toss it over their back.
Derived from Sand Bubbler Crabs on Wikipedia
More info from Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the ArtsSand Bubbler Crabs Scopimera inflata (Family Ocypodidae)
Seen on beach at Moreton Bay, Moreton Island, Queensland, Australia February, 2005.
Phylum: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropod Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Infraorder: Brachyura
A pair Sand Bubbler Crabs at Changi Beach.
This pic was also uploaded to Instagram.
*Note: More pics of Fishes and Marine Creatures in my Fishes and Marine Creatures Album.
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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Clusters of sand pellets left from the feeding process of Sand Bubbler Crabs (either Scopimera sp. or Dotilla sp.). Photographed on the beach at Balding Bay on Magnetic Island (Townsville, Australia)
Fraser Island.
QLD. Australia.
Note: The sand balls are actually created by Sand Bubbler Crabs. The common name of this crab comes from the balls of sand they creates while feeding. Sand bubblers sieve microscopic nutrient material (detritus) between each grain of sand, 're-pack' unwanted particles in the form of tiny balls and deposits them all over the beach. These sand balls are processed sands and are not excretion.
Courtesy of: mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/01/sand-balls-party.html
Some of the thousands of Sand Bubbler crabs that scurry across Mindil beach at low tide
cloudtogroundimages.com/2013/12/26/northern-territory-exi...
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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Tracks made by the little sand bubbler crabs.
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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God has designed their colors to match the color of seashore sand.
Can you see the small sand bubbles around the crab?
These tiny animals are called Sand bubbler crabs (Pu Lom in Thai). Beside the fact that they can run very fast, they also form these tiny sand balls around their hole. The ball's size is as big as their body. Each ball takes about 10 seconds or even less to form. But the question is: "Why do they do this?"
The answer is simple. It is all about food.
High tide brings organic substances onto the beach. At low tide, these crabs will come out of their holes, looking for food.
They use their claws to take the sand through their mouth and after having eaten all organic materials from it, they will release the sand again. During this process, however, they will shape the sand into tiny balls. These crabs will form about 360 balls per hour, and these balls are not just being scattered around. Amazing patterns are being created that soon, after 3 or 4 hours, cover most of the beach.
So, why do they form these patterns? In this way they make sure that they don't come back and eat the sand again that has already been stripped of organic material. Smart, isn't it?
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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Tracks made by the little sand bubbler crabs.
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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The features in the sand are balls created by sand bubbler crabs. Each group of balls has a hole in the center where this tiny crab is found. The beach was scattered full of these
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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Some of the thousands of Sand Bubbler crabs that scurry across Mindil beach at low tide
cloudtogroundimages.com/2013/12/26/northern-territory-exi...
Sand bubbler Crab making balls of sand...so pretty
It is eating the thin coating of edible particles on sand grains which is then discarded in balls of sand.
More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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More about this crab on wildsingapore.
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These little guys were all over certain stretches of Ngapali Beach in Myanmar. I found them so fascinating to watch, and was impressed by the sheer scale of their domain on the huge stretches of sand. Wikipedia has an article on these fascinating creatures.
Please also take a look a the previous five shots in my photostream, if you haven't already:
Some of the thousands of Sand Bubbler crabs that scurry across Mindil beach at low tide
cloudtogroundimages.com/2013/12/26/northern-territory-exi...