Oh god, the crab is still alive!

I went to the beach today and picked up what I thought was a dead small green crab laying belly up in the sand. I brought it home and I rinsed it and tossed it into isopropyl alcohol and it started moving its legs and its eyes! I’m horrified because I would never have put it in alcohol if I’d known it was alive! I feel like if I were to take it out of the alcohol and rinse it off, the damage would be done and I’d just be prolonging a very painful death.

Should I just leave it in the alcohol and wait until it dies? Is there a more humane way I can kill it?

Please help, I feel horrible.

That’s rubbing alcohol, right? If it’s ok for human skin I’m sure the crab will be fine if you rinse it off. Put it back in its natural environment, it’ll survive better there. Or get eaten, but that’s life on the beach for a crab.

I think putting it in the freezer is recommended:

The cite listed on that forum is a dead link, but it seems legit and I’ve heard similar before.

That… does not follow. Fresh water is ok for human skin, but putting a salt water crab in it will kill it in short order. The isopropyl is probably doing a job on it’s gills too - try inhaling some rubbing alcohol fumes and see how your mucus membranes feel.

TashaKitty, either (a) cut it in half with a cleaver, or (b), get over it, it’s a crab.

Okay, thanks for the replies, guys. I’m pretty certain that the crab has passed on. It’s stopped moving and its shell is turning a mottled yellow/orange. I’ll have to go out and buy more alcohol, though; it might need a change of alcohol and I used all of ours up.

So what’s the purpose of this alcohol soak anyway? Are you trying to preserve it like an 1800s museum exhibit?

My bad. There are also land crabs which keep their gills sealed shut, so I was thinking about it from the perspective of how the alcohol would affect the crab’s shell, not would the crab be breathing or drinking the alcohol. As it’s dead now I suppose it’s a moot point.

Yepper.

Crab anecdote:

As a child we spent a lot of time at the beach. When I was five or six years old, I found a discarded tuna can and used it to collect a few tiny crabs and took them home. The next morning, the can was empty. The crabs had crawled out and fallen to the floor of my bedroom to die near the floorboard.

Is it moving like trying to skitter around, or was it just twitching slightly? Because many “lower” animals can be functionally brain dead, but will still twitch in certain situations. The “living” octopus from Oldboy (the original one!) was likely beheaded, but starts moving in soy sauce, due to a reaction with salt. My chemistry is too out of date to know if isopropyl is a factor, and my crustacean biology is worse.

Either way, it’s dead, Jim. If the color changed, it’s almost certain. Don’t feel too bad, but you can also try to find a molt next time, less cleanup. Hope it looks nice for whatever purpose you plan.

Life imitates art.

Odd. It’s usually the other way around - first the alochol, then the turning green and lying belly-up on the beach.

Do crabs have wild drunken orgies that I’m not aware of? I’ll be sure to bring my camera next time I go.

It was slowly furling and unfurling its legs, and it moved its eyes a couple of time, like it was looking around. I hope it wasn’t aware because I feel bad.

I have a badass horseshoe crab molt!

The real question is whether, as a result, they risk getting people.