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Little sand crab rolling sand into tiny balls
by /u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 | 110 comments | 2026-06-15T12:23:27+00:00 Central
Comments
| /u/KingWolfsburg "Those tiny, intricate patterns of sand balls you see on tropical beaches are the work of Sand Bubbler Crabs. As they forage during low tide, they sift through the moist sand to eat microscopic organic matter, and then roll the leftover, cleaned sand into neat little pellets to avoid re-sifting the same area." For those curious like me |
| /u/portraitsman Thanks. All the other comments are racing to get to the top with the most overused jokes |
| /u/SirDervin Absolutely. Most of the jokes are not even funny. "The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so." |
| /u/AppropriateTouching Michael Scott syndrome. |
| /u/Lmt-C That's what she said. |
| /u/mikedvb My most successful comments were accidental. Anytime I _try_ to be funny, it always fails. |
| /u/Ok_Bus_3752 If the 180 ppl that upvoted your comment also downvoted their lame overused meta-humor, this would stop quite quickly. I did my part. |
| /u/ConflictedZombie Idk about other people but I've noticed my downvote works a lot less often. Sorry to be in tin foil hat territory but given reddit changed the voting algorithm a few years back to make everything appear more highly upvoted I don't think it's all that crazy to think they've made it so downvotes actually apply less often. Especially with how much crying people do whenever they get even a single downvote |
| /u/Jervis_Mantlepiece No you're not alone, I've noticed that as well. |
| /u/TolMera https://giphy.com/gifs/786FlS48rOydO If only karma/downvote/reputation actually made a difference |
| /u/InfanticideAquifer This is not new. It's called "vote fuzzing" and they've been doing it for as long as I can remember. The original idea (not to say that they haven't found other benefits) is to make it harder for people to market mass upvoting/downvoting bot networks. If the vote totals you see aren't actually the vote totals that were recorded, your customers can't verify that they're actually getting what they're paying for. |
| /u/ConflictedZombie I thought vote fuzzing was more when it already had a decent number of votes one way or the other and it would fuzz the exact number so it was a little different each time you looked. But usually in the past if a comment has been at 1 or 2 and I downvoted it I would be able to see it go down to 0 and 1 and it would stick like that. But these days a lot of the times I downvote a comment at 1 it'll just stay at 1 and my downvote doesn't do anything |
| /u/AmputeeHandModel https://giphy.com/gifs/YYfEjWVqZ6NDG |
| /u/wet-leg The same five jokes over and over and over... i don't know how anyone finds them funny, much less after the 50th thread in a row |
| /u/Jazzlike_Climate4189 Especially when school is out. |
| /u/dolliciousszz Everyone on Reddit is a comedian aren't you aware |
| /u/AwsomeLife90s https://giphy.com/gifs/WrxoaVPiq0cG4 |
| /u/russ_01_01 Smart. Sure beats digging the same hole over and over. |
| /u/idontknowmathematics I read this in Sir David Attenborough's voice |
| /u/Valuable-Analyst-464 Is there any other proper way? |
| /u/Careless_Leg_2552 There is not. I immediately read it in his voice, that's how it's written! lol |
| /u/LunarPsychOut Liam O'Brien has such a silky but commanding voice, I'd say hearing him while you read is pretty great |
| /u/SirDervin I had to go back and do that. Thanks for the reminder. |
| /u/Careless_Leg_2552 I appreciate you writing that in David Attenborough's voice for me. |
| /u/communismbot1 Its a hard days work but somebody's gotta do it |
| /u/JaxandMia It's kinda like me at Taco Bell. I eat the taco, pick out the fallen lettuce and cheese and roll up the wrapper, throw it aside and move on to the next. Want to make sure I don't check the same wrapper twice. |
| /u/CoconutMochi I didn't think beach sand could be dense enough with food to sustain crabs like this. |
| /u/chucknorris10101 also its wet sand likely constantly being replenished a lil bit with small algae etc. he's also got quite the pile o balls |
| /u/preyforall Your use of diminutives is very charming and relaxing to read. |
| /u/Perryn When a wave makes that thin skim at the edge of where the tide reaches, it still carries a lot of suspended particulate. The water at that point doesn't just flow back but also sinks down into the sand. This makes the surface of the sand act as a strainer for all that delicious detritus that the crabs filter back out, along with all the tiny things that were already in the sand eating the detritus. |
| /u/Wiscody I read this in David Attenboroughs voice even though I doubt he has ever said thia |
| /u/PhuzziTheWuzzi You rock! Thanks a ton. |
| /u/Pentax25 Like Wall-E of the beach! |
| /u/Zealousideal-Sail893 Curiosity makes the world go around... |
| /u/mgranja It's like a giant pile of used plates next to the crab's dinner table? |
| /u/Best_Market4204 That's pretty badass |
| /u/opelleish Do you think he's left handed and that's why he always sends the balls around his left side? |
| /u/AdditFox12 This is Amazing, thank you!! |
| /u/Scarymouche For those wondering why. It is a sand bubbler crab and he's eating. He is sifting through wet sand and eating tiny bits of organic matter and microorganisms. The little sand balls are the cleaned leftovers that it shapes and pushes aside after feeding. |
| /u/FantasticBike1203 Some animals are quite insane |
| /u/FantasticBike1203 https://giphy.com/gifs/xThtayslX0EjQ8XS5a |
| /u/Boomboooom Animals are aways in flow state |
| /u/Karnaugh_Map Imagine if you had to live by eating individual grains of rice all day long. |
| /u/FantasticBike1203 To be fair buddy is quite small, its like eating shrimps |
| /u/darkenseyreth I just assumed it was a mating ritual |
| /u/TheKingBeyondTheWaIl Everything is a mating ritual in the end |
| /u/craq_feind_davis And he's doing a spectacular job |
| /u/TheRealtcSpears No really, he's doing it in a roundabout way |
| /u/Shopping-Afraid This conversation is going in circles. |
| /u/Several_Direction633 Im having a ball reading these |
| /u/Difficult_Can_4046 I sphere that we may run out of ball puns quickly |
| /u/Minimum-Tear4609 Then we'll just roll on to the next pun thread! |
| /u/NaziPunksFkOff Seriously I said out loud to my computer "I don't know what he's doing but he's doing great and I'm proud of him" |
| /u/Better-Mammoth-4435 After they've feasted on the microorganisms in the sand, they roll it into little balls to signal to other crabs that it's been sifted through. |
| /u/Animalus-Dogeimal It ain't much, but it's honest work |
| /u/Financial-Solid-4775 It ain't honest, but it's much work |
| /u/digital To make these out in the open, it takes balls. In this sphere of work, it's only you and the sands of time. |
| /u/BikeProblemGuy Are crabs generally cooperative? That's an amazing adaptation. |
| /u/RipTheJack3r It also helps them recognise sand they've already gone through would be my guess |
| /u/Gingevere In OP's video you can see the trails of scooped sand and bubbles all radiate out from a single point. Probably this crab's burrow. |
| /u/ColorsLookFunny No they famously are not cooperative. |
| /u/CMDRZhor Actually on the seafloor (some) crabs will huddle together in these giant piles when a predator's nearby and cling to each other to make it difficult for the predator to target any single one of them. So in the case of the crabs pulling other crabs back into the bucket it's not about 'suffer with me', it's more 'get back to safety you dipshit'. |
| /u/yamatoshi I'll add this is by saying just looking at one aspect of their behavior, crabs are complex. Theyre not above eating their own young. They do regularly engage in infanticide. On the other hand, they do communicate with each other through 'waving' to communicate things like territory. Some also create vibrations using their shell to communicate as well. So I wouldnt say they dont have the ability to cooperate at all. Crab culture is complex. We should learn it well because some day we'll all be crabs. |
| /u/Indigo-au-naturale Ah, I see you've read The Hike |
| /u/Zeras_Darkwind https://giphy.com/gifs/3oAkajB9UD3GTcKGsw |
| /u/GeorgeCauldron7 Kind of like a phalanx battle formation |
| /u/ZQuestionSleep Hermit crabs form a conga line when they upgrade shells, handing them down to smaller crabs. Kind of like everyone moves next door for a bigger house. |
| /u/Tiramitsunami They don't know they are cooperating. It's just a little behavioral program that evolved over time that makes it more likely the crab's genes get passed on and less likely they don't. As far as social science is concerned, this isn't true cooperation. There's no recognition of any other crab's agency. |
| /u/Gingevere they roll it into little balls to signal to other crabs that it's been sifted through. Well, surface tension holds the sand together into a ball and the result of that is that no sand gets sifted twice, but it's probably not a conscious behavior. A crab that eats more gets bigger and reproduces more. That selects for crabs eating constantly. Not wasting any effort sifting the same sand twice. Over time that created this behavior that the crab likely does without knowing why. |
| /u/Loakattack But why male models? |
| /u/CyberNinja23 Brings a snowball scoop to the beach Crabs start searching for their king |
| /u/Suppository-34613 My lord! That is so honest. |
| /u/jefbenet they're called "sand bubbler crabs". this is them filter feeding. |
| /u/YeahIFuckingDrewThat https://giphy.com/gifs/3oxOCnTo0FiaYDFoyY |
| /u/zombie_spiderman God forbid crabs have a hobby Crabs will do anything to avoid going to therapy |
| /u/srednax Yeah stop judging crabs and go fix your own problems! |
| /u/hahnsoloii I mask all of my problems by pointing out crab flaws. |
| /u/slcexpat Better than this https://giphy.com/gifs/uA8WItRYSRkfm |
| /u/INoMakeMistake Last time Bulbasaur had a knife it didn't end well. |
| /u/Burninator05 I vote for "God forbid crabs have a hobby." |
| /u/bionicjoey God forbid crabs have a hobby Crabs will do anything to avoid going to therapy Which of these replies is correct depends on if the crab is male or female |
| /u/GetOffMyGrassBrats They eat tiny things that are in the sand and discard the sand in little balls. |
| /u/RCbuilds4cheapr Step 1 : roll balls . Step 3 : profit |
| /u/lamb-of-he-who-rises Apparently from Google, it's waste sand to show that there's no food in said sand. So they're searching for food and when they find none, they ball it up and set it aside. |
| /u/Scarymouche It is usually a sand bubbler crab, which feeds by sifting through wet sand and eating tiny bits of organic matter and microorganisms. The little sand balls are the cleaned leftovers that it shapes and pushes aside after feeding. |
| /u/Welpthisishere It's eating, it filters through the sand and eats whatever's in the dirt and spits out the ball when it's done. |
| /u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 I think it's how they eat. They eat microscopic phytoplankton from sand. |
| /u/Zathala He's eating and sorting sand without food in it into tiny balls |
| /u/AnswersFor200Alex They are eating! The Sand Bubbler Crab is taking in that sand, eating organic matter, plankton, etc., they then discard the balls as a way of tracking what has been gone through already. |
| /u/wtfrustupidlol They're eating . For human comparison it's like when you eat a handful of sunflower seeds then spit the shells. |
| /u/anonduplo They see him rolling, they hating |
| /u/Naughteus_Maximus He looks so happy, he's got life figured out. I imagine him whistling a merry tune to himself like Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie 😙 |
| /u/uuuuyeahhhh Agreed! His entire to do list is literally ''make ball, throw ball.'' Adorable! 🤣 |
| /u/RaymondBeaumont https://giphy.com/gifs/ehwuBgKNA2NACoFa7w |
| /u/ServiusTullius753 The little guy is working like a super dexterous street food vendor |
| /u/RGBfoxgoesbrrr It's so tiny that I fear I might accidentally step on it at the beach, gosh. |
| /u/Smoldogsrbest Don't worry. They are very quick to go into their burrows when anyone gets close. |
| /u/Any_Show_5160 Last beach I was on with little crabs making balls there was thousands of them, with tiny balls covering most of the tidal zone, never stepped on one because they disappear fast. |
| /u/Keitsu42 The beach near my parents has thousands of them. Whenever you walk there are hundreds of crabs just scuttling away on every direction. |
| /u/Bee_Jeans Right? They camouflage so well too! I do watch where I walk if they're around, but they're really good at zooming out of the way I used to sit & watch them as a kid, u had to stay still & wait to see them come back out and carry on as normal. Sudden movements and whoosh there they go into the burrow |
| /u/Illustrious-Towel-45 I think he's filtering tiny bits of food out of the sand. |
| /u/whereveriland I came across this on a secluded beach. The sand balls were in a pattern that looked very artistic. Love these little creatures |
| /u/StudioLegion https://giphy.com/gifs/rcYgt444S8CZ2 |
| /u/Freya-of-Nozam Little crabs (usually sand bubbler crabs or fiddler crabs) make those balls of sand while feeding. They scoop damp sand into their mouths to extract and eat microscopic organic matter and algae. Once the sand is "cleaned," they roll the leftover, indigestible grains into tiny pellets and discard them to avoid re-sifting. |
| /u/Tablefor1please9987 Look at him go❤️ |
| /u/NopeNoWayForgetIt I like how he just tosses the finished balls behind him |
| /u/BanjoTCat Crab: Work, work, work, everyday |
| /u/MinuteLoquat1 He see me roll mi dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt |
| /u/EskimoBrother1975 For anyone else who was curious, this is part of their feeding process. When they scoop up the sand sand they go through it for bits of food and then discard it in a pellet. |
| /u/iNEEDyourBIG_D When I was a kid in the Florida Keys I would watch them for hours on the beach making these little balls around their hole. It was mesmerizing to 3-7 year old me. |