Valentines Dating Tips (for crabs)

Crabs don’t do courtship in the same way as humans.

While they don’t gift their partners flowers or branded charm bracelets, there is no shortage of perfume (of sorts). When a female crab is ready to mate, they release a chemical scent signal called pheromones to attract a male.

It’s an important time for the female crab as some species, like the blue crab, only mate once in their life.

This means that they need to seek out the perfect partner - for the blue crab, this means the biggest and strongest male around. The bigger the male, the more sperm they can produce, the more eggs will be fertilised.

Female fiddler crabs also decide on their mates based on size, but specifically claw size. Studies have found that the larger the claw, the larger the burrow, which means more oxygen and space for the eggs to grow.

Male crabs often accompany their displays of size and strength with a dance. Drumming their claws on the ground and bobbing around, showing agility, and perhaps general coolness.

For crabs to successfully mate, the female of the species needs to be soft, so once a mate has been found the female crab must moult so that her exoskeleton can absorb the male’s sperm.

Moulting is a dangerous time for crabs as their normally hard exterior is weakened. During mating however, the male partner protects the female until she is ready.

Once they are both ready, the two crabs lock themselves together in a body to body embrace, and exchange genetic material.

After this the female crab can either immediately fertilise her eggs, or alternatively store the sperm for up to two years until the time is right - pretty cool huh?