Photo: Sioux Falls Butterfly House & Aquarium
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO.com) — It appears to be the year of the horseshoe crab at the Sioux Falls Butterfly House and Aquarium. They only have a .01% chance of surviving in the wild, but more than a thousand have been born at the aquarium. Their population is on the decline, because of overharvesting and habitat loss. Horseshoe crabs also have the unfortunate fate of being a food source for other crustaceans, sea birds, and fish. An aquarist found the trilobite larvae, as baby horseshoe crabs are called, during a routine water change in BHA’s new Eastern Shores exhibit. The newly-hatched trilobites are smaller than a pencil eraser, but females can grow to up 24 inches. They look like tiny adult horseshoe crabs, but with translucent shells.
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