This is why you are seeing more horseshoe crabs stranded on the beach than in previous years. Most do not wash up on the beach, but come ashore to spawn and the waves turn them over stranding them on the beach making them vulnerable to predators. (shore birds, raccoons etc.)

Horseshoe crabs lay their eggs between the high and low tide marks. This helps to keep the eggs moist until they hatch. The shore birds you see feasting on the beach are most likely eating the eggs although shorebirds will sometimes be seen feasting on the overturned horseshoe crabs too.

Turning over horseshoe crabs and helping them back into the water, while in the big picture won’t make much of a difference, to the individual horseshoe crab it could mean the difference between life and death. While some of them would probably be able right themselves and get back to the water when the tide comes in, many could die from dehydration and predators before that happens. If it makes you feel better, by all means help them. I always try to help an animal in distress as long as it’s safe and feasible.

1. First I thoroughly wash the shell inside and out, sometimes you have to let it soak for a bit to get things to loosen up a bit.

2. I then soak the shell in a solution of bleach and water. Approximately 1/2 cup to about 3 gallons of water.  I let it soak for about 20-30 minutes. This sterilizes the shell and removes any residual odor.

3. I then rinse the shell again to remove any bleach and dirt that may still be left on the shell.

4 I Then position the shell (it should be easy to put the tail in any position you’d like at this point) and let it dry thoroughly.

5. I then have a bath of lacquer that is thinned down with lacquer thinner, but if you’re just doing one, I’d recommend you use a spray can of lacquer that you can get from Lowes or any other home improvement or hardware store and give it at least one coat both inside and out.

It should dry pretty quickly (usually in about 5-10 minutes). At this point the shell will have a nice shine and the lacquer gives it more strength so that it will keep its shape.

That’s pretty much it.  I’ve been considering adding this information on the site along with a video showing the process. Hopefully I can get this done soon.

This year the horseshoe crab population has shown signs of improved numbers and the red knots that depend on their eggs to give them the energy to complete their journey to their breading grounds in the Artic are getting enought eggs to bring them up to optimum weight.

While this is a very good sign that things are turning around, the red knot population is still critically low and more work has to be done to ensure that the red knot and horseshoe crab population makes a full recovery to previous over harvesting days.

The Johor Straits Singapore is one of the homes of the Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda species of horseshoe crabs that inhabit that part of the world.

Carcinoscorpius Rotundicauda are horseshoe crabs that can be found in the indo/west pacific waters and are getting dangerously close to extinction.

The part that makes me mad is that fishermen are using mono-filament nets on these shores and are leaving them unmanned.  The horseshoe crabs and other wildlife get caught in the nets and when the tide goes out are stranded on land where the heat quickly kills them.

The part that gives me hope is that this article tells how one person spent over 5 hours fighting time and the heat of the day cutting the nets away and releasing the horseshoe crabs so that they could get back into the water in order to survive.

I commend this individual and my only hope is that more people take an active role in helping wild life and that there be enacted laws to prevent fishermen from abandoning their nets and leaving the fish and animals entrapped in them to die because of their neglect.

Scientist capture and tag many red knots and other shore birds to  help keep an eye on how well the birds are doing. The last decade has been challenging to these birds due to the reduction of the horseshoe crab population along the New Jersey beaches.

The preliminary results coming in seem to indicate that the horseshoe crab population is rebounding from the over harvesting and the red knots are getting enough horseshoe crab eggs to fatten up for their continued journey to their breeding grounds.

Hopefully this will bring about a rebound of the reclining population of red knots seen over the last decade and prevent the possiblility of their extinctinon.

You can see a short video of the scientists capturing the examining the shorebirds at nj.com.

Baltimore Maryland is one place where you can go to see this extrodinary event. The beaches littered with horseshoe crabs laying their eggs and the shorebirds following them eating their fill to gain necessary wieght to continue their journey to their breeding grounds.

Here’s a link to  see a picture of these ancient creatures doing what they do best  and view an article from the Baltimore Sun on this years horseshoe crab migration.

There are some things you do need to do in order to keep your horseshoe crab alive and healthy.

First you need to set up your marine aquarium correctly and with the right equipment. If you have a marine set up already then adding a horseshoe crab is pretty straight forward. They just need to be acclimatized to the new tank slowly like you would do with any new member to your marine environment.

If you buy a horseshoe crab from a local fish store, be sure not to take all their advice at blindly. I have visited a lot of fish stores and questioned them on keeping horseshoe crabs and the advice they gave was in most cases wrong or incomplete. So beware.

The female horseshoe crab, with a male horseshoe crab in tow will come up to the shore line and lay up to 20,000 eggs in a number of shallow nests that she makes along the beach.

After laying the eggs she pulls the male over the nest when he then fertilizes the eggs.

It’s a good thing that she lays so many eggs because they then leave the nest unattended and the eggs are then open for predators to eat, mainly shorebirds.

Typically it is estimated that only 1/10 of 1 percent of the eggs will end up surviving to adult hood. With this dismal chance of survival it’s a good strategy that they lay so many eggs.

In all but the warmer climates horseshoe crabs will only mate once a year. This being in late spring to early summer.

Down here in Florida they mate pretty much year round except in mid winter when they bury themselves in the sand for a couple of months till things warm up a bit.

They dig around in the sand and mud to find whatever they can to eat. Basically they are scavengers.

If you are keeping horseshoe crabs in an aquarium, you can feed your horseshoe crab bits of clams, worms, brine shrimp as well as any type of sea food as long as the pieces are small enough for the size horseshoe crab that you have.

Just let the food fall to the bottom and the horseshoe crab will scavenge for them.

One of the problems with keeping a horseshoe crab is making sure that there is enough for them to eat. One of the most common reasons for a horseshoe crab dieing in captivity is starvation.

Another point to keep in mind when keeping horseshoe crabs is make sure you have a sandy bottom for the horseshoe crab to sift through as it’s feeding.

Actually, horseshoe crabs don’t use the tail as a weapon at all and there is no poison to be found here. The tail which is called a telson is just used to help it navigate and to turn itself back over should it get knocked onto it’s back.

With that in mind, I wouldn’t want to accidentally step on it with bare feet. The tail is fairly sharp at it’s point and I’m sure you could get a pretty good stab wound from it.

The horseshoe crab has no teeth or even a jaw, so it can’t bite at all, so no chance of getting bit by one. The pincers on the end of it’s legs are not very strong. Just enough to pick up small pieces of food and direct it into it’s mouth. Nothing at all like a real crab which can give you quite a pinch if you let it.

Speaking of crabs, a horseshoe crab is not a crab, but rather a relative of spiders and scorpions. It is a lot friendlier than either of those two cousins. I’m not much into picking up spiders or scorpions that are alive, but a horseshoe crab. No problems there.