Since a lot of people don't frequent the critter ID area I decided to repost these pics of a crab I recently found in shallow water right off a tourist beach near where I live - here on the West Coast of Florida. Not much shore diving here as the fine sand feels wonderful on the toes but is horrible for viz in the shallow waters near shore in the Gulf. Still with periods of East winds seas can flatten and up to 30 feet of viz can be had right off the beaches. We also find lined seahorses and unusual snake eels and searobins in the same area. Cool and unusual diving! B)
Leslie really liked these photos and called them artistic and "Impressionistic".... 
; well, at least I think that is a good thing...... Actually if it does have an "Impressionistic" feel it is probably because of the prolific "angel's hair" algae that sometimes blooms here for a short time each late spring. I'm glad Leslie liked the pics, I felt they were a little "different". 
I believe this crab is rather unusual for the area as I have a lot of dives around here and I've never seen a crab like this one on the West Coast of Florida. But alas it is not a good enough ID picture for an identification. Leslie says the long-legged "majid" crabs are notoriously hard to ID even if collected.
But we do know this - this guy really liked to wear algae. In fact when I first saw him he looked JUST like a clump of algae that was drifting along. Only thing wrong with that scenario was that this clump of algae drifted with a bit of "rhythm"; so I knew there was a cool character under there. He was so sure of his effective "disguise" that he went on about his finding juicy bits and paid no mind to my camera lens. In fact he was so hard to photo because he kept approaching the lens, over and over again.
Hope you like him as much as I did, he was loads of fun to find and photo! And right off a beach of umbrellas and sun-tanned tourists??? Who would have thought??? Carol B)
Close and claw
Face shot
Full body - just peaking out from algae
