Crabs’ food

Crabs usually eat algae. Crabs are omnivorous, meaning that they will eat both plants and other animals for sustenance.

Various species of crab have slightly different diets. They have a very strong digestive system that permits them to eat fungi, mollusks, bacteria, worms and even other crustaceans, such as shrimp or barnacles. In times of desperation, they have been known to eat the offal from the sea floor, which can include dead and decaying animals.

Like most omnivores, crabs require a balanced diet to maintain the highest degree of health and reach their maximum growth potential. Their systems need both the protein found in meat as well as the vitamins present in undersea vegetables to sustain quality digestion.

Why do crabs walk sideways?

Well, the simple answer is because it’s the way their knees bend. So, if you think about our knees, they bend forwards and that allows us to take step forwards whereas crabs, their legs are on the side and their knees bend outwards, so they can only move sideways. The more interesting answer is taking into account, of course, evolution. We’ve evolved to walk forwards. Most nature animals walk forwards because you can see where you’re going better. But for crabs, there must be a reason why it’s okay for them to walk sideways.

They spend a lot of their life buried under the sand and they’ve developed these kind of long, flat bodies that make it very easy for them to sort of squiggle under the sand and hide there. Having their legs on the side kind of fits in with that elongated shape. They also don’t really need to walk that fast – they’re scavengers. They don’t chase prey very much. So actually, they don’t need to be great runners and being able to hide has been more useful for them.