Saltwater Sand Crabs At Malaysia Beach Resort

At The Legend Cherating, a popular Malaysia beach resort, we are just next to the South China Sea. Here we saw thousands of mini saltwater crabs burrowing and creating what we call crab artwork of various sand designs...

Great camouflage

Spot the mini crab?

Look carefully...

Scuttling into its burrow


We also did some research and learned that the sand crabs that we saw bolt into their burrows at the slightest sign of danger as we observed. When you want to observe these mini sand crabs, just stand in position, limit any movements which would cause the sand crabs to scurry into their burrows and avoid casting a shadow over them.

Crab artwork

You will soon see moving balls of sand... Acording to Wiki, these sand bubbler crabs are responsible for the delicate patterns of tiny balls on the sandy shores at low tide. They emerge as soon as the tide recedes. You can almost tell how long the tide has been out by the patterns of their sand balls. The more intricate the pattern of sand balls, the longer the tide has been out.

Sand crabs getting used to us standing around and starting to show themselves

The burrow of the mini sand crabs

Sand Crab waiting to scuttle into its burrow for safety

Sand bubbler crabs have stiff hairs on their legs which they use to absorb water from the wet sand. Sand bubbler crabs have eyes are on stalks that poke out of their round bodies. Their long pincers point downwards to scoop up sand into their mouths. The males may have larger pincers.

Sand crab eating

Sand bubbler crabs eat the thin coating of detritus on sand grains. They scrape up sand grains with their downward pointing pincers and bring these to their mouthparts that then sift out any tiny food particles. The shifted sand is then discarded in a little ball. As they eat, a little path is scraped out on the sand from the burrow entrance. Little balls of sifted sand is piled up on either side of this path. As a result, there is often a 'path' among the piles of sand grains leading from the burrow entrance.

Notice the sand in the shape of a ball being discarded after tiny food particles have been sifted out


See how the sand crab makes the sand balls and the crab artwork created by the balls of sand it discards

Pile of sand balls

More sand balls




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