Monster Tasmanian King Crab-澳大利亞巨蟹

A sea monster ... and he’s still a nipper! Monster Tasmanian King Crab saved from the pot and shipped to Britain for aquarium display

• Claude weighs a mighty 15lbs and measures 15 inches wide and would have produced 20lbs worth of meat

He was destined for the pot – if they had found one big enough to fit.
But Claude the Tasmanian giant crab was saved from death when the fisherman who caught him sold him to a British aquarium  for £3,000.
Now, after a 29-hour plane journey from Australia – where giant crab meat is a delicacy – and two weeks in quarantine, Claude is ready to meet his public.

Catch of the day: Held up by Sealife aquarist Jemma Battric, Claude weighs a mighty 15lbs and measures 15 inches wide - when he is fully grown he will weigh a whopping 30lbs and gain an extra three inches

 

Lucky escape: The Tasmanian King Crab is a delicacy in its native Australia and was destined for the dinner table until it was snapped up by a British aquarium worker. He paid £3,000 for three and had them flown to the UK 

He is the biggest crab on display in the UK and weighs a mighty 15lb with a 15-inch shell – enough to make 160 crab cakes.
Claude is 100 times bigger than a standard UK shore crab. Yet he is still a juvenile and will grow to double his weight.
Claude was caught off the coast of Tasmania last month, but was sold to the Sea Life group along with two other Tasmanian giant crabs.

He will go on display at the Sea Life centre in Weymouth, Dorset, on Thursday, and his two companions will be  moved to other centres in Birmingham and Berlin if Claude responds well to his new home.
Currently he is being kept on his own in a specially made cylindrical tank, ten feet tall and six feet wide, but the aquarium will introduce some coldwater fish once he is settled. 

Mini me: Claude dwarfs a British Shore crab who is put on his back for size and to show just how gigantic he is 

 

Big crab, small appetite: 'The crabs don't eat very much despite being one of the largest species and they will feed on shrimp, prawns, and squid when they are here,' said Jemma Battrick, aquarist at Weymouth Sea Life