Crabs grow by molting, or shedding, their hard outer shell. Recently, Estuarium aquarist Brian Jones caught the molting of the furcate spider crab on time-lapse. 

In total time, the molting took about 15 minutes, but you can watch it happen in less than 30 seconds. 

The furcate spider crab is one of a variety of decorator crabs, which means they decorate their shells with materials from their environment to hide from, or ward off, predators. 

This furcate spider crab decorated her shell with algae. 

Jones said that after molting, she immediately transferred the algae from her old shell to her new one. 
 

Furcate spider crab molting (shedding) from Dauphin Island Sea Lab on Vimeo.