On 2005-11-02, Dan Abel > wrote:

> I'm going to be having nightmares tonight!

Yeah, me too.

They really are hideous. I saw a guy catch one in the SF Bay almost
under the GG bridge. It was so ugly the guy almost threw it back, not
knowing what it was or what to do with it. It had onlookers backing
up and going "eeuuwwww!". A Chinese fellow explained what it was and
took it off his hands. The local variety are much smaller, but they
decorate their shell with crud and look all deformed and corroded,
like something out of a nightmare. I suspect that one in the tank
would look even scarier in its natural habitat.

nb