What is a Gaudy Clown crab you may ask? This special type of crab is no bigger than a shirt button. They are basically nocturnal, sleeping in during the day and come out at nights. These beautiful looking crabs are brightly coloured and live in holes they burrow in a sponge on which they also feed, as well as under crevices in area of surge looking for more food. What do they eat? These colourful crabs eat Palythoas. You find Palythoas on the rope like sponges along the reef.
Gaudy clown Crab
Being one of the most beautiful crabs, means your defense mechanism much be one of which to protect you to the highest degree. Well Gaudy Clown crabs actually has the most lethal poisons known to nature, when eaten. These crabs are sequester palytoxin. By eating the Palythoas, on the Zoanthid, the crabs inherit the lethal poison, which they contain. Just like nudibraches advertise their beauty, but are not good for eating, so does this crab. This small but powerful crab is beautiful to see, as they mate and reproduce just like any other crab, where the female carries the eggs in her abdomen. The patterns on these amazing crab’s backs are unique to each crab. Sadly many of these crabs fall victim to the aquarium trade.