Ripple's Water Dance

Ripple was a one-armed bandit of the crustacean world. A red fiddler crab with one massive, brightly colored claw (for display and fighting) and one small claw (for feeding), he lived in a paludarium—half land, half brackish water. His movement was a comical, rapid sideways scuttle. He'd spend hours sorting through sand with his small claw, putting edible bits in his mouth and flicking the rest away. The small tank is too still now, missing the bubble-blowing from his gill chambers, the waving of his big claw, and the industrious remodeling of his sandy beach.