Great Britain to the Mediterranean, Florida, the Caribbean, the Atlantic coast of South America, Bermuda, Southern Mexico to Ecuador, Gulf of California to Southern Mexico, Japan, Hawaiian islands, Indian Ocean, Korea, Ryukyu Islands Taiwan, and the Indo-pacific

HABITS:

The spiny lobsters are benthic scavengers as are most lobsters. They are marine invertebrates often associated with rocky bottoms and other cover. Nocturnal foraging is primarily exhibited by this group, and muddy bottoms in open water and strong currents are strongly avoided. They consume a variety of foods including molluscs, worms, small invertebrates and fish. Cannibalism can be observed when calcium carbonate is not available!

SPAWNING:

Spiny lobsters start life in a cluster of thousands of eggs beneath the tail of the female. There they ripen until one day...she sheds them into the open sea where they begin a perilous odyssey in the plankton, molting eleven times before finally changing into a shape that even the untrained eye can recognize as 'lobster'. A few tiny survivors, which may have been spawned hundreds of miles away, are carried inshore by currents and settle in sea grass beds and around the roots of the red mangroves where they feed on both animal and vegetable matter. When about three inches long they again migrate to deeper water. There under ledges and in holes they hide by day and feed by night, mostly on carrion, small snails and clams. In response to the season or food availability, they move en masse, often in columns hundreds of yards long, from shallower to deeper water or along the shore. Specifically, mating occurs at various times of year depending on the species in shallow coastal waters. Some larger females are believed to spawn in both the spring and fall (biannually). Males extrude a viscous fluid that attaches to the underside of the female and hardens to form a sperm sac. Eggs are passed over the sperm sac at a later date and fertilized. The sperm sac is then disrupted and the 50,000 to 4,000,000 eggs attach to the swimmerets for hatching. Only 3 weeks are required for the hatching of the phylosomas larvae. This is the planktonic stage that goes through a multitude of moults for 3 to 6 weeks before metamorphosing into a puerulus larva. Up to 16 moults have been measured over a 178-day period in controlled settings! This stage resembles the adult lobster, but must go through a series of additional moults before reaching the juvenile stage (2.1cm).

GROWTH:

The frequency of moulting and therefor growth rate is related to water temperature, food supply, and sex. Males grow larger than females and therefor moult more frequently. Panulirus interuptus is believed to obtain a maximum weight of 13kg, but 3 kg lobsters are considered to be large. This species takes 7-9 years to reach the minimum harvestable length of 27cm. Moulting requires casting off the old shell, after which body tissues swell with seawater and await the protective hardening of the new shell into which they will flesh out. Growth slows as they age and moulting becomes infrequent. Still, a spiny lobster in Gulf waters can attain a length of 20 inches and weigh over 10 pounds. Other species in other parts of the world, as mentioned, grow even larger.

USES:

These organisms, although not as tasty as the true lobsters (Maine lobster) are an important food item in the seafood industry.

CULTURE:

This organism is very difficult to culture. Attempts beginning in the early 1900’s revealed the difficulty of raising the spiny lobster through its intricate life stages. Culture conditions are often incorrect and lead to moults without considerable growth. Constant temperature is a necessity and silt and detritus must be absent. Feeding seems to be the greatest hurdle of the larval stages. Brine shrimp nauplii are readily ingested by early life stages, but little is known about the natural food of this organism as they develop.

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