Friday, December 14, 2012

Fiddler Crab

If u have a fiddler crab or luv them here is my science assignment in words a 7th grader can understand (me)

Habitat

Fiddler crabs are found in mangroves, sandy or muddy beaches of the West Africa, the Western Atlantic, the Eastern Pacific, the Indo-Pacific, and in salt marshes. Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in water that has salinity. So ultimately if you had a pet fiddler crab you it would be essential to keep it around salt water. A fiddler crab is like a decomposer because they clean up dead organic material and even live plants. And fiddler crabs also helps its habitat by sifting through the sediment and then deposits better sediment.

What It Eats

Algae is commonly eaten by fiddler crabs. But since fiddler crabs are scavengers they will eat any organic matter that is found on the surface of mud and rocks. The way fiddler crabs eat is by using their claws to scoop up the food and pass the sand grains to their mouth. Appendages (external body part) are used to separate organic matter from the grains of sand and pass it to its mouth. The sand grains are removed in a form of little sand balls.

Features physical/behavioral

Males and females have different physical features such as that the male’s claw is longer than the females. Fiddler crabs are described as competitive. The competition usually results during mating season when the males are trying to get a girl another crab is trying to get.

Fiddlers crabs appearance by species:

Sand Fiddler Crab- have purple bodies and light brown legs, burrows in the sand from predators.

Mud Fiddler Crab- Is a deep brown color and burrows in wet sand also known as mud.

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