How Do Blue Crabs Get Their Food? | 水產百科網

Unlikesomeanimalswhoareveryparticularabouttheirfood,bluecrabsdon'tmuchcarewhattheyeat.Theyfeastonfish--deadandalive--othercrabs,snails, ...

By Chris Miksen

i Jeffrey Hamilton/Lifesize/Getty Images

Blue crabs will eat almost anything, but getting even the simplest meals takes at least a modicum of work, such as scouring the area for plant matter or dead fish. The more difficult meals call for a bit of claw-crushing action, hitching a ride with high tide or waiting, watching and sensing.

When the waves crash farther and farther onto the shore during high tide, blue crabs spring into action. They swim into the salt marshes in search of food, fiddler crabs and snails in particular. Snails typically cling to the stalks of grass in the marsh. Blue crabs have reached up as high as 7 centimeters out of the water to pluck marsh periwinkles, a type of sea snail, from the grass.

Blue crabs arent always on the go in search of food sources. Sometimes they wait silently, digging beneath the sand, exposing only their eyes. When prey swims or, in the case of other crustaceans an...