Blood-spotted swimming crab

Portunus sanguinolentus

Crustaceans
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth12–115 m
Water temperature18–30 °C
Best monthsApril, May, and July
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) self, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

About this species

Portunus sanguinolentus, the three-spot swimming crab, blood-spotted swimming crab or red-spotted swimming crab, is a large crab found throughout estuaries of the Indian and West Pacific Oceanic countries.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Portunus sanguinolentus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 82 records
February: 74 records
March: 66 records
April: 128 records
May: 101 records
June: 65 records
July: 100 records
August: 71 records
September: 69 records
October: 73 records
November: 76 records
December: 63 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 12–115 m · Deepest record: 119.4 m

10–20 m: 6 records
20–30 m: 7 records
30–40 m: 5 records
40–50 m: 2 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 2 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 2 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110–120 m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–30 °C

18–20 °C: 3 records
20–22 °C: 8 records
22–24 °C: 54 records
24–26 °C: 39 records
26–28 °C: 41 records
28–30 °C: 38 records

Photos

(c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Young Jun Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Kelvin Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ashwit Shetty, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) mister_bumble, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Gannu03, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Blood-spotted swimming crab, blood-spotted swimming crab, three spot swimming crab

Names in 2 more languages

German: Pazifische Rotpunkt-Schwimmkrabbe
Japanese: ジャノメガザミ

Other scientific names: Callinectes alexandri, Cancer gladiator, Cancer raihoae, Cancer sanguinolentus, Lupa sanguinolentus, Lupea gladiator, Lupea sanguinolenta, Neptunus (Neptunus) sanguinolentus, Neptunus sanguinolentus, Portunus (Portunus) sanguinolentus

Similar species

Blue swimming crab
Portunus pelagicus
Portunus armatus
Gazami crab
Portunus trituberculatus
Portunus convexus
Portunus segnis
hairy swimming crab
Portunus pubescens

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,533 open-data records from 1783 to 2023.
Species data updated November 6, 2026.

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