Live Horsehair Crab

Live Horsehair Crab.

Live Horsehair crabs are found mainly in the Northwest Pacific, around the Hokkaido coast in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Western Bering Sea and is an important commercial species used in Japanese cuisine.

E. isenbeckii has a hard shell and soft spines which cover the shell and appendages. It can reach over 1 kg in weight. Erimacrus isenbeckii is known to feed three to four times in a ten to twelve hour time-span and cannibalism is common for E. isenbeckii in the spring.  The carapace of E. isenbeckii can reach 100 to 120 mm in length in adults. Like the two other species in the same family.