Fine Fiddle

Every fiddler had a fine fiddle,

and a very fine fiddle had he;

Oh there's none so rare as can compare

With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

We have all heard of King Cole’s famous fiddlers three. They played fine tunes to please their master, the king. But have you ever heard of the crab that plays the fiddle?

I am talking about the ‘fiddler crab’. This species of crab is commonly found on Indian beaches. It measures about one to two inches, and can be identified by its distinctly visible ‘fiddle’.

In the males of this species, one of the claws is extremely large, much larger than the other claw, and sometimes even larger than the entire body of the crab. This claw is often brightly coloured, and is meant for attracting the female. During courtship, the males engage in a fight in which they use their large claw.

The fiddler crab feeds on algae, fungi , dead plants etc….

When this crab feeds, it picks up food from the ground and puts it into its mouth. It repeats this action several times, rapidly. It uses its small claw to feed. The larger claw remains motionless. The small claw thus moves again and again across the large claw. So the overall action looks as if the large claw is the fiddle, and the crab is playing it with the small claw!

Watching this tiny fiddler is a joy indeed!


1. http://wildphotos.net/facts/Fiddlercrab.asp?page=/facts/Fiddlercrab.asp
2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPAA9y7CRqo
3. http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/FiddlerCrab.pdf