Semakau : Hunting Seeking (25 July 2009)

It's a day of Hairy Crab as more than 10 Hairy crabs were spotted at my Zone in this Hunting Seeking, and also lucky to see a BIG ONE! This was the biggest Hairy Crab I have seen so far, about the size of my palm. I also pleased that it stayed so calm for me to capture a nice photo of its face.
Hairy Crab is 'mild' poisonous due to the food it eats and also the environment it lives, which is near the Sponges. Its hairs is able to stick up the particulars in the surroundings, and therefore camouflages itself well and makes it difficult to be spotted.

Another 3 nice crabs that were spotted are the Orange Swimming Crab, Saw-Edged Spooner Crab and the Yellowish-Green Fiddler Crab.
Swimming Crab is quite common in inter-tidal area, and is also one of the most fierceful as it always in an On-Guard position when senses danger. It has a pair powerful pincers and some of them are poisonous and not edible.

 

Fiddler Crab is an interesting crab as the male crab is usually colourful and has one big colourful pincer and one smaller pincer. The big pincer is not meant for fighting, but it's for scaring away other male crab and also to attract the female crab. The male crab can only use the smaller pincer to eat, and therefore eats much slower than the female crab.

This was the first time I saw a Noble Volute in a shiny blach shell, as usually they are in a brownish stripes shell. Noble Volute is a very fierce predator and feeds on bivalves. It uses its mantle to clamp onto its preys and then uses its long 'tongue-like' mouth to feed on them the moment when their shell open.

While walking back after completing the Hunting Seeking, spotted a school of Catfish swimming near the shore. There were about few hundreds of them and created a very beautiful formation.