Sand Bubbler Crab

The sand bubbler crab is a funny little critter that lives around the sandy beaches of South-East Asia. This cute, tiny little crab, see, what it does is it digs a hole in the sand to live in, and tosses out the sand in hundreds of tiny little balls. These sand balls surround the burrow and form unbelievably impressive, perfectly symmetrical patterns. When it digs its hole, the sand bubbler crab packs sand into balls and pushes them out of the burrow. It then carries the balls of sand one by one out of the hole, thus creating amazing patterns on the sand along the beach where it lives.

A tiny sand bubbler crab on a beach in Thailand

I saw lots of these symmetrical sand ball arrangements at Railay Beach in Thailand. I was amazed at the size and intricateness of the designs. They were like giant snowflakes lying on the beach, no two the same.

Sand bubbler crabs come out in vast numbers at low tide. If you stay quiet, you can see these wonderful little busy-bees working on the beach, making their sand-ball patterns as the tide recedes. On some beaches they come out in their thousands, filling entire beaches with their peculiar artwork.

Railay Beach, Crabi, Thailand

Sand bubbler crabs lives between the high tide and low tide lines. When low tide exposes the sandy beach, they only have a few hours between tides to clear their burrows of sand and find nutrition from the sand before high tide comes again and they have to hide in the sand again and wait for the next low tide. Along with the high tide come larger crabs and other predators that feed on these little things.

That’s not to say that the sand bubbler crab would be safe on dry land, either. They are easy pickings for birds that snatch sand bubbler crabs from the beach for food. They are extremely quick on their feet, though, and quickly hide in the sand at the slightest hint of danger from above.

Another sand bubbler crab

The sand bubbler crab is very small in size, only about one centimeter or half an inch in diameter. It feeds on microscopic organic matter like plankton that has been left stranded on the beach by the retreating water during low tide. The sand bubbler crab sifts organic matter from the sand, and in fact cleans individual grains of sand from any organic matter left on their surface. That way the sand bubbler crab does its part in keeping the beaches of the world clean. Let’s all remember to do the same!

This is my first blog post here for a long time. I have not forgotten this site, I just have not had the time to sit down and write. In fact I have been meaning to, many times. Way too much has been going on these past months in my personal life, so there simply has not been a possibility to find time to blog. I hope that has changed now and I have every intention to start writing on this blog regularly again. Thanks for reading, see you soon!