World’s Most Colorful Lobsters in Their Natural Habitats

Lobsters are economically important sea food. These creatures are amongst the most popular and most expensive foods in fine dining. When Lobsters are cooked they are very bright in color. They are either red or orange in color or a combination of red-orange.

But in their natural habitats, some lobster species are amazingly colorful. Check this out!

European Lobster (Homarus gammarus)

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Who could have though that lobsters can be as colorful as the lobster on the above photo. This lobster is known as the Common Lobster or European Lobster. This lobster species is abundant in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea.

Brilliantly-colored Common Lobsters are large species reaching a size of 60 cm and could weigh 6 kg. It has conspicuous pair of claws – the right claw is the crusher while the left claw is the cutter. European Lobsters are blue for life with spots and yellow below. It turns red after cooking.

Rosy Lobsterette (Nephropsis rosea)

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The Rosy Lobsterette on the above photo is a bright orange colored lobster species. Yes it’s the natural color of the lobster, it is not cook yet. It is also commonly known as Two-toned Lobsterette. It can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea and nearby areas.

Rosy Lobsterettes, a small species that can reach a length of 13 cm, live at depth of up to 1,280 meters.

Blue Spiny Lobster (Panulirus versicolor)

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The Blue Spiny Lobster is a colorful lobster species that inhabits tropical reefs. It is more commonly known as Painted Rock Lobster. This lobster is unique from all other spiny lobster because it has no claws. This carnivorous creature is nocturnal and highly gregarious. In the daytime they hide in small caves and crevices in reefs or under coral at depths up to 20 m.

Southern Rock Lobsters (Jasus edwardsii)

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The Southern Rock Lobster is a brightly-colored spiny lobster species that can be found in New Zealand and Australia. This colorful lobster is also commonly known as the Red Rock Lobster or Spiny Rock Lobster. This nocturnal and carnivorous creature lives at depths of up to 275 meters and can attain a length of 23 cm and can weigh as much as 10 kg. This ocean-bottom explorer feeds on crabs, shellfish, sea urchins and small fish.

Common Spiny Lobster (Palinurus elephas)

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The Common Spiny Lobsters is a colorful lobster commonly caught in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean. This lobster with very heavy and spiny antennae can grow up to a length of 60 cm. Other common names of this lobster include European Spiny Lobster, Common Spiny Lobster, Crayfish or Cray, Red Lobster and Mediterranean Lobster.

California Spiny Lobster (Panulirus interruptus)

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The California Spiny Lobster is a brightly-colored spiny lobster species can be found in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. This nocturnal marine animal can attain a length of up to 30 cm. it inhabits rocky areas at depths of up to 65 m and feeds on clams, worms, mussels and sea urchins. Its coloration is typically reddish-brown with stripes along the legs.

Norway Lobster (Nephrops norvegicus)

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The Norway Lobster is a slim, orange-pink lobster that is found in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. It can be found too in the Adriatic Sea. This lobster, which is also known as Dublin Bay Prawn, grows up to 24 cm in length. This scavenger and predator is also known by other common names such as Scampi and Langoustine.

Purple Reef Lobster (Enoplometopus daumi)

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The Purple Reef Lobster is a brightly-colored small lobster species that inhabit hard rocky bottoms of tropical waters of the world. They are particularly plentiful in the Japanese waters. They can be found at depths of up to 300 meters. This colorful lobster has stripes, rings, or spots in shades of blue, red, white and orange and becoming popular in the aquarium trade.

American Lobster (Homarus americanus)

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American Lobsters or Northern Lobsters are lobster species that can be found on the Atlantic coast of North America. These nocturnal marine creatures inhabit rocky areas of cold and shallow waters. They feed on mollusks, fish and small crustaceans. It is also known as Atlantic Lobster or Maine Lobster.

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The American Lobster can grow up to 1 meter long and can weigh as much s 20 kg or more, hence they are considered as the heaviest marine crustacean in the world.

Yellow Lobster

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Yellow Lobsters are very rare to find. These lobsters were the result of a rare genetic mutation.

Blue Lobster

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Like the Yellow American Lobster, the Blue American Lobster is caused by a genetic defect that produces excessive amount of protein. The protein and a red carotenoid molecule known as astaxanthin combine to form a blue complex known as crustacyanin, giving the lobster its blue color.

Odds of Finding Uniquely-Colored Lobsters

Blue Lobster

It is estimated that around 1 in 2–5 million lobsters are blue.

Red Lobster

There is a 1 in 10 million chance of catching one lobster alive with red color.

Yellow Lobster

Yellow Lobster is very rare with the odds of finding one at 1 in 30 million.

Albino Lobster

It is estimated that only about 1 in 100 million lobsters is albino.

Orange Lobster

One of the rarest lobsters is orange-colored lobster. Such lobster as this is a 1 in 30 million catch.

Multi-colored Lobster

The chance of finding one is estimated at 1 in 50 million.