FIDDLER CRABS - on the Jersey shore - easy to find and observe!

All you need to do is find an area of brackish water - where fresh and ocean water meet, like a canal or a lake near the ocean. You will see hundreds of these crabs!!!!

The crabs you see in this video are Fiddler Crabs. We filmed them in Manasquan New Jersey by a canal where the ocean water meets the fresh river water.

This type of mixed water is called "brackish." The fiddler crab is called “fiddler” because male crabs have enlarged right claw, which is almost three times as large as its left claw. They use it to fight and impress their girlfriends. See these two crabs are waving their big claws trying to scare each other. Fiddler crabs live in burrows near the water's edge, forming large colonies - hundreds of crabs. These small, round holes are entrances to their burrows that can be up to three feet long. They dig with their legs. When the tide rises, fiddler crabs plug the entrance to their burrows with sand and sit inside waiting for the water to leave. They eat rotting plants. In winter they also seal their burrows and stay inside. They can stay out of the water for months at a time, as long as the sand around them is damp. The predators that eat fiddler crabs are birds and racoons.