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The blue crab are scavengers and will eat anything they can find. this includes:  clams, oysters, mussels, smaller crustaceans, periwinkle snails, freshly dead fish, and detritus.

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The diamondback terrapin, egrets, and mallard ducks will eat the blue crab when they are smaller or they  tend to eat the females crabs since they're smaller.

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1) Only the males have blue colors on their claws.
2) Female blue crabs only mate once
3) The blue crab can lay up to 8 millions eggs! But it depends on how big the female is.
4) Blue crabs will shed their shell to make a new one. This process is called molting.
5) Blue crabs have teeth in their stomaches so they can "chew" their food.

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The blue crab tends to live and search for food in the mud of the marsh. This is because of the detritus and the fish that swim above the mud. Blue crabs prefer brackish water with a nice mixture of salt and fresh water.

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Barnacles, leeches and worms will attach themselves to the blue crabs shell and the crab will travel around the marsh. The organisms that have attached to the crab will release and the predators of those animals will eat them. This helps spread out the worms that will help the plants and the will spread out the prey. Sacculina barnacles will attach themselves to crab and feed on the fluids of the crab that prevents them from reproducing. This is a parasidic relationship.

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Callinectes sapidus is the blue crab scientific name. It translates to "Beautiful Swimmer"

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After the blue crab is hatched from it's egg it is a Zoea. This is a microscopic animal stage. Then it will evolve into a megalopae which is bigger and has developed claws and defined appendages. The next is a juvenile crab that is clearly a blue crab. Once the crab has molted (definition at fun fact 4) about 20 times it'll be fully mature. Depending on the sex of the crab, the female will mate and create a sponge to lay eggs. If a male it will mate and then die.

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There are many threats to the blue crab. One of the most common is the destruction and harming of their habitats. Hypoxia is when there a low concentration of oxygen in the water. Green and Blue algal will mix which will cause algal bloom and they will take up the oxygen in the water. This will cause hypoxia and the algae will release a lot of nutrience in the water. This is bad for the blue crab and other organisms. ( click this link to learn more about Algal blooms)
https://padlet.com/mark160/SalwaterMarsh_EcosystemDesign
The blue crabs will move to shallow water to find more oxygen. But this will cause them to be more open to predators and fishing gear.

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http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/EBFM-Blue-Crab-Summary.pdf

https://padlet.com/mark160/SalwaterMarsh_EcosystemDesign

http://www.avivadirectory.com/trivia/213-20-fast-facts-about-blue-crabs/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/algal_bloom.htm