How Do Blue Crabs Get Their Food?

Foraging Behavior

Blue crabs are both carnivores and omnivores. They will seek out prey, but often are scavengers eating decaying matter and plants and dead fish. Blue crabs will prey on oysters, hard clams, fish, crabs (including other blue crabs) and shrimp.

Locating Food

Blue crabs locate food using a combination of chemoreception and taction. Blue crabs have limited vision and must rely on smell and touch. Chemoreception is basically the blue crab's sense of smell. They have very sensitive smell organs (chemoreceptors) on their antennae, in their mouth and throughout their body. Blue crabs can smell the chemicals their prey release in the water and follow these to find food. The crab also uses the tips of its front walking legs/claws to search for buried food.

Manipulating Food

Once blue crabs have obtained food, they use their claws to break it into smaller pieces and move it toward their mouths. The mouth, located between the antennae, holds jaws that function to hold and push food into the esophagus. Blue crabs do not push food into their mouth until they have broken it down into small enough pieces.

References

• Blue Crab Frequently Asked Questions
• Blue Crab Anatomy
• The Life of the Blue Claw Crab