Fiddler Crabs have a square shell that is tapered behind and
has a marginal notch. Male Fiddler crabs have only one enormously enlarged claw and female's have equal-sized claws. There are three kinds of species of the Fiddler Crab:the Sand Fiddler, the Mud Fiddler, and the Brackish-water Fiddler. The Sand Fiddler and the Mud Fiddler crabs are both found in strongly brackish water to saltwater. The Brackish-water Fiddler crabs are found in freshwater to midly brackish marshes. The Mud Fiddler are more likely to be on mud flats, whereas, the Sand Fiddler is found on beaches and sand areas. These three species range fromCape Cod to Texas , but the Fiddler crabs is absent in Florida soyth of St. Augustine. All these Fiddler crabs burrow into flats and banks in or near coastal marshes. Burrow openings of Brackish-water Fiddler are mostly above water; the other two species are active by day, eating mostly bacteria, minute algae, and fermenting marsh plants from the soil. The common English name, Fiddler Crab, comes from the feeding of the males, where the movement of the small claw from the ground to its mouth resembles the motion of a someone moving a bow across a fiddle (the large claw). These species are not right now threatened or endangered.

Author's name: Alaere I.

Links

http://www.csa.noaa.gov/otter/htmls/data/species/crabs.htm

Fiddler Crabs: http://life.bio.sunysb.edu./ee/msr/Uca/ucanames.html

Last updated: 6/22/99

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