Crab

Useful as both toy and decoration!

Our Plastic Crab

This engaging, realistic-looking plastic crab replica is colorfully painted. It is soft and hollow and squeaks. The artist who designed this crab chose the shape of a dungeness crab, but chose a paint color which is typical of a cooked crab rather than a living one, which is generally dark purple/brown in color. This does not bother us since we enjoy cooked crab often here on the Oregon Coast. I hope this crab makes you hungry. Check out our other educational crab toys and gifts.

About Dungeness Crabs

The dungeness crab (Cancer magister) is a species of crab found along the Northern Pacific Coast. It is numerous and harvested in crab pots placed at shallow depths. Many coastal communities depend on crabbing as a main source of income for the fishing community. The Dungeness crab has five pairs of appendages including two large claws, which it uses as defense and to tear open food. The Dungeness crab is an excellent scavenger and feasts on clams, small fish and other small crabs. It is usually about 8-10 inches wide and is named after Dungeness, Washington which is near Port Angeles, Washington.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Mr. Hermit Crab

Our big plastic hermit crab with the inquisitive eyes is turning out to be quite a popular guy. And why not? He looks so cool and those eyes make him appear somewhere between realistic and very personable. This crab is big enough that you can learn the parts when studying sea life in school. Or - what a nice gift for any crab fancier!

This engaging, realistic-looking plastic hermit crab replica is 4 3/4 inches wide and 2 1/4 inches high. It is made of solid flexible plastic. Its legs are flexible, but not posable. The shell is made of the same hard plastic and is flexible at the front. Our hermit crab has a kindly expression and promises not to pinch. This hermit crab makes a nice pet, a gift or works well in a diorama. Check out our other crab toys and gifts.

There are approximately 500 different species of hermit crabs living in saltwater intertidal zones. It isn't a true crab, but has a soft belly which it protects by crawling into an abandoned mollusk shell. This behavior of living in an abandoned cave evokes the image of a hermit, thereby getting its name. As the hermit crab grows, it must find an ever larger shell to inhabit. The hermit crab is fussy about which shell it takes. It likes those that have anemones or sea plants growing on it and even decorates his shell with these living things. This provides a symbiotic relationship, food for them and they provide better security from predators through camouflage.There are land varieties of hermit crabs and, surprisingly enough, there is an organization of hermit crab pet lovers, who keep them at home in aquariums.

Come see our great selection of plastic sea animals!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Did you ever see such a colorful crab?

Crabs come in many shapes and colors, and we were very excited to find this plastic Sally Lightfoot crab to put in our online store. Getting the crab in stock also gave us an excuse to learn something about real Sally Lightfoof crabs:

This engaging, realistic-looking plastic Sally Lightfoot crab replica is made of hard flexible plastic. It is 7 inches wide across the legs and the carapace (shell) is 2 3/4 inches wide. It does not float. Our Sally Lightfoot crab miniature has a kindly expression and promises not to pinch. This Sally Lightfoot crab replica makes a nice pet, a gift or fits into a diorama for a school project. See our other crab toys and gifts.

The Sally Lightfoot crab (Percnon gibbesi) is one of the most common crabs along the coast of South America. It is especially prevalent along the rocky shores of the Galapagos Islands. The crab derives its name from the fact that it scuttles along on its tiptoes, thereby appearing light-footed. It has large eyes and remarkable vision. It runs very quickly, is incredibly hard to sneak up on and catch and, even as a group, changes directions almost instantly. It eats algae and almost any kind of organic refuse. The Sally lightfoot crab is a prolific breeder and fortunately is not endangered like many other animals in this region. If you think the colors in our plastic crab are exaggerated, take a look at this photo of a real Sally Lightfoot crab! They must be among nature's most colorful animals!