Esui Crab

Esui crabs are similar in overall morphology to hermit crabs, though they may grow up to a foot across with time. Unlike hermit crabs, however, the spiraling shell that shelters the animals' abdomen grows from the crab and is occasionally molted to provide additional room for growth rather than being scavenged from gastropods. This shell grows via a unique process wherein clay consumed as grist for digestion is excreted, along with mucous and special binding proteins, through the cuticle along the animal's abdomen. This has implications for the esui crab's utility as a livestock animal (see Uses, Byproducs, & Exploitation).

Esui crabs are not known to die of old age, though they do eventually reach an 'eqilibrium' size of around one foot across due to factors like the availability of a suitable quantity of food and hiding places. They are prey for larger animals capable of cracking through their shells or extracting them from their shells, such as parrot fish, cephalopods, sea turtles, and other species of crab. Esui crab annual mortality risks actually decrease with age, as larger specimens (especially males) develop strong claws and thick shells that make them difficult to accost save for the period just after molting.

Esui crabs are scavengers and detritivores, eating any plant or animal scraps they can find in the intertidal regions where they reside. The crabs can walk on land for some time due to the way their gills are positioned within their body, allowing them to forage in tide pools, on beaches, and even the light undergrowth beyond. Groups found near populated areas, such as the Eudoxia dock districts, become accustomed to feeding on food waste and other garbage, earning them the perjorative nickname 'pobuk asimalpo' (raccoon crabs).

Esui crabs are occasionally kept as pets or conditioned to return to specific patches of beach by those who reside near the crabs' feeding grounds. It isn't clear if esui crabs are capable of forming bonds with their erstwhile 'owners' or simply return to places as a result of territorial instincts that can become conditioned as a result of anthropogenic factors. Wealthy Greathouse families whose histories are tied to aquaculture or pottery have been known to keep esui crabs in aquariums even if they now reside far from the sea, the maintenance of these aquariums representing a display of wealth directed towards visitors in equal measure to their significance as family heirlooms. Pet esui crabs that don't die as a result of mishandling are sometimes released into the wild when they reach full size due to the escalating expense of keeping them and the risk their claws represent to unwary fingers.

Esui crabs are edible, though not very appetizing in comparison to other species of crab. Esui crab meat tends to be earthy and a little difficult to clean as a result of clay granules that sometimes accumulate in the pores, especially to the rear of the animal, though they can also prove savory when cooked with butter and citrus. The meat of these crabs is regarded as lower quality and, as such, is inexpensive as seafood goes.   Esui crabs are cultivated in the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy for their meat, but also for their shells. Because esui crab shells are made of aluminum-bearing silicate clay rather than the usual calcium carbonate, they can be roasted at below vitrification temperatures to expel the biological binding agents and acquire clay powder which, in turn, can be mixed with grog and water to make clay suitable for pottery. Primitive Rostrans understood this property well, as many islands in the archipelago are poor in workable clay deposits. Thus, esui crabs were so important to the development of the early Rostran pottery industry that, in time, terms for pottery and clay entered into the species' name.