The Sulawesi Freshwater Leopard Crab

 

Sulawesi Panther Crab a.k.a. Leopard Crab is a freshwater crab from Lake  Matanao. It is a beautiful creature with a fascinanting personality. Lake Matano is a deep lake formed from the crater of an extinct  volacano. At 500 metres deedp it is the 10th deepest lake in the world. Another species of crab, a cousin of the Leopard Crab , the Pruple Matano Crab also lives here.  This crab is the Cheetah of the Crab world, its movements are so fast that its a problem to catch them when changing the aqurium water

When the Crabs first came they were small and had no spots, with the suitable tank water conditions and frozen blood worms fed to them, they are now thriving and the spots began to show. Will give them the care they deserve. 

Like the Crayfish that I keep, Crabs also molt. When they grow too big for their skins, they change to a new skin. But unlike Crayfish which often die in the strenuous effort of molting, and leave a messy old skin with parts missing, Crabs molt effortlessly, slipping out of, and slipping into their new clothes with almost no damage to their old skin. In the photo below, you can see the old skin of one of my Leopard Crabs, complete with claws and all. And its owner is as frisky as ever immediately after the molt. 

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Leopard Crabs are the Houdinis of the Crab World. They are expert escape artists, seemingly able to climb up vertical smooth tank glass walls, squeezing into impossibly small spaces, and once escaped, can survive for days out of water even though they are fully aquatic crabs. Despite my best efforts (see the netting on the tank), every once in a while one will be missing. And days later I may come across one in the glass that holds my toothbrush in the toilet, or crawling out from under my bed, or biting my foot while having dinner at the kitchen table. Thus, I take a roll call every night before I go to bed, and if one is missing, I get all stressed up and have difficulty gong to sleep.

Leopard Crabs also have a high survival instinct. When they do fight, they fight till one dies or suffer catastrophic damage. But even with 8 outof its l10 imbs bitten off, the losing crab has a strong will to survive and will hide under a stone nursing its wounds and hunt for food with its remaining two limbs. 

A Leopard Crab in ambush mode

The pristine almost flawless old skin left over from moulting

The loser in a fight left with only 2 claws out of 10 still active and trying his best to survive

Leopard Crab a.k.a Houdini Crab climbing the vertical glass wall of the aquarium

The Leopard Crab's cousin the Priple Matano Crab is the Cheetah of the Crab world.