Fiddler crabs burrows on the mudflat as refuge during high tide, and during low tide it is a source of water for keeping the gills wet, it is an escape from predators and it is the site of mating and incubation. Male fiddler crab have a single enlarged claw, while females have two small feeding claws.
Fiddlers feed by scraping the surface sediment up in their small claws, transferring it to the mouth where the complex mouth-parts sift out the organic matter. They then spit out a small pellet of cleaned sand. These feeling pellets cover the mudflat by the end of the low tide period. Because males have only one small, feeding claw, they feed at half the rate of the females. They therefore have to spend about double the time feeding.
A fiddler crab, sometimes known as a calling crab, may be any of approximately 100 species of semi-terrestrial marine crabs which make up the genus Uca. As members of the family Ocypodidae, fiddler crabs are most closely related to the ghost crabs of the genus Ocypode. This entire group is composed of small crabs -- the largest being slightly over two inches across. Fiddler crabs are found along sea beaches and brackish inter-tidal mud flats, lagoons and swamps. Fiddler crabs are most well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw while the females' claws are both the same size.
Like all crabs, fiddler crabs shed their shells as they grow. If they have lost legs or claws during their present growth cycle, a new one will be present when they molt. If the large fiddle claw is lost, males will develop one on the opposite side after their next molt. Newly molted crabs are very vulnerable because of their soft shells. They are reclusive and hide until the new shell hardens.
Henry Island is an island near Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas, India. It is approximately 130 km (81 mi) from Kolkata. Henry Island is named after a European adventurer who surveyed land in the area in the late 19th Century. The area was covered in dense mangrove forest parted by numerous canals. Nobody other to pry other than the red fiddler crabs dotting the shore.
Source - Wikipedia
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