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Lobster

Way of life

More about the lobster

 


Way of life

The lobster lives on stoney or rocky bottoms where it makes its home amongst the rocks and crevices. They gladly live in the zone where the rocks meet the sand bottom because it can dig in the sand and under the rocks.
They have stringent demands on water temperature. Below 5°C they do not eat, and at about 20-22°C they die. The lobster is mostly active at night.

What they eat

The lobster eats all types of bottom creatures, even dead carcasses. If for example the lobster wants to eat a hermit crab, it burrows up sediment in front of its hole. The hermit crab then leaves its shell and digs it way up through the sediment, where the lobster catches it. Because of all the refuse from the lobster that lies just outside its hole, the sediment has a low oxygen content and the environment becames rather unpleasant for the hermit crab.
It has also been shown that lobsters can filter particles out of the water. Experiments with larvae of a little pelagic crustacean have occured. A possible use of the lobsters ability to eat suspended particles is to farm lobsters and feed them on a suspended food source. In this way, one major problem with lobster farming would be solved: the inability of having several individuals in the same tank. Lobsters do not distinguish between their own species and the prey they eat, they are cannnibals. It would be possible to feed the lobsters with a diet in suspension, tie their claws with rubber bands and be able to keep them in much the same as when they are in a lobster chest.

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Bo Johannesson | Martin Larsvik | Lars-Ove Loo | Helena Samuelsson