Snow crab
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Newly hatched snow crab larvae look like tiny shrimp.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Snow crab
- Scientific name
- Chionoecetes opilio
- Japanese name
- ズワイガニ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Malacostraca
- Order
- Decapoda
- Family
- Oregoniidae
- Genus
- Chionoecetes
Where the name “Snow crab” comes from
The English name snow crab comes from its snow-white meat.
NOAA FisheriesIn some regions it is also called Echizen-gani or Matsuba-gani.
A crab that lives on sandy or muddy sea bottoms in places such as the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and the Bering Sea.
It eats almost anything it can catch and crack open with its claws, from fish, shrimp and clams to seaweed.
In the breeding season, a male holds a female with his claws and guards her from other males.
How the Snow crab lives
Larvae eat plankton, change into tiny crabs and settle on the sea floor. Young and adult snow crabs crawl along the sea floor on their legs. They grow by shedding their old shells and forming new ones.
NOAA FisheriesUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Carapace width: 40–160 mm, males up to 165 mm
- Weight
- 0.5–1.35 kg
- Lifespan
- up to 19 years in the wild, 12–19 years in the wild
- Active
- By day and by night
- Diet
- Shrimp, brittle stars, polychaete worms, amphipods, bivalves, and other invertebrates
- Range
- Northern Pacific, Bering Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, Sea of Japan, and elsewhere
Where the Snow crab has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ズワイガニ
- 简体中文
- 灰眼雪蟹
- 繁體中文
- 灰眼雪蟹
- 한국어
- 대게
- Español
- Cangrejo de las nieves
- Français
- Crabe des neiges
- Русский
- Обыкновенный краб-стригун
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- アクアマリンふくしま — ズワイガニChecked: 2026-11-03
- NOAA Fisheries — Alaska snow crabChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Chionoecetes opilioChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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