#beni zuwaigani

[kyaramaru]

FIRST EX-GAMERS GIRLS AND SANBAKA PERFORM ARE WE GETTING BENI ZUWAIGANI AND OTHER DEBUTS MATE???

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #113

Brought to you by a marine biologist who trusted the names this time!

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

We are continuing with crab week, folks! Yesterday we covered small freshwater friend the Mitten Crab, and today we’re going back into the sea. I gotta tell you guys, this is one of my favorites. Yes, it’s a pretty cool animal, but it’s also my favorite thing to eat. The legs of this fairly large species are a popular dish the world over, and it’s wide distribution in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic Ocean make it accessible to many different countries.

But man is this thing a pain to find and catch in ACNH! It’s extremely rare - I haven’t even caught one yet! Luckily, you will know when you’ve spotted one because it runs. Like the Giant Isopod and Gigas Giant Clam, you will be hard pressed to spend less than ten minutes chasing this thing around your island. When you do finally catch it, it’s extremely satisfying, though. Fortunately, they are available all day, so if you have some time to kill, why not go crab fishing?

Anyway, figuring out what species this was gave me some trouble, until I remembered the Japanese version of the game may give me more clues than I give it credit for. In fact, the name in the English version also helped confirm it as well. 

If you’ve been following these fish posts for a while, you’ll see a common pattern of ACNH not really committing to particular species when naming their animals (or just flat out getting it wrong, but I digress). And, yeah, I know, no one cares except me, but it does make the game a little less than trustworthy when I’m trying to ID them for you all. This time started out no differently - all seven species in the true crab genus of Chionoecetes are often called “snow crabs” because they can be found in the colder waters of the North. They all generally look the same, too, with round, squat bodies with very long, flattened legs and bulbous pincers. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a particular species in this genus called the Red Snow Crab, Chionoecetes japonicus that hails from the Sea of Japan. Closed case, right? Except for some reason I just didn’t like it. I found a scientific article that mentioned the species naturally hybridizes with Chionoecetes opilio, the (OG) snow crab (also called opilio crab to be less confusing, I guess). Their ranges overlap and both species are very important to Japan, as well as any other country that borders their range (including Korea, Canada, Norway, the EU, etc.) So, I thought, this very well could be C. opilio, and ya know what? I think it really is and I’ll explain why (that’s what we’re here for, yes?)

By Totti - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80235225

Normally, in science, you don’t refer to species by their common name. Depending on where, a single animal could have ten different names, which is why we always use the binomial, in this case that’s Chionoecetes opilio. In English, we call it “Snow Crab”. In Japan, they call it “Zuwaigani”. And, yup, you guessed it, that’s exactly what this crab is called in the Japanese version of the game, too. The other species we were considering, the Red Snow Crab, C. japonicus, is called Beni Zuwaigani (”Beni” meaning “Red” in Japanese). So, what the hell’s the difference? Well, quite a bit, actually.

Both species are fished for in the Sea of Japan where their ranges intersect and both are eaten in Japan, too, but where Beni Zuwaigani is considered inexpensive and can be purchased cheaply, Zuwaigani is considered luxury. Only the very best for ACNH, and that would probably explain why it’s so damn rare and sells for 4,000 bells a pop. Both crabs are caught during the winter and prefer the cold waters of the North and deep sea, down to 1400m. Could explain why they’re available now throughout the winter, and are put in the deep sea tank in the museum, although they’d probably be more at home in the ice tank. 

There are a few details that could make this C. japonicus, one being the placement in the museum, as C. japonicus appears more typically in deeper water than C. opilio. Nevertheless, I feel that more evidence, as well as the more muted purple-y red of the game model fits with C. opilio more. They don’t call the Red Snow Crab that for nothing - it really is so much redder than the Snow Crab, and the model really doesn’t do it justice if that’s what they were going for. Feel free to discuss and disagree, though!

So, yeah, ACNH actually called this thing to-species!

And there you have it. Fascinating stuff, no?

[itsuworks]

BENI ZUWAIGANI / Package