A MARINE life centre has named its giant crabs after asking residents to nominate family members prone to moments of crabby behaviour.

Sea Life Scarborough says it received a lot of responses after asking people to nominate their favourite moody teenagers, cantankerous dads and grumpy grandmas.

Now they will be naming their three new Japanese Spider Crabs after the winning trio.

Az Ahmad, Emily Beth Outhwaite and Josh Lawrence have all been nominated by family members.

Az’s wife Clare nominated him for being ‘the ultimate cantankerous Daddy’ and added that, like the giant crab who will take his name, he will eat almost anything.

Emily Beth was nominated by her mum Amanda due to her crabby behaviour when waking up for school in the morning and Josh’s girlfriend Maddy explained that he gets especially crabby when Scarborough FC loses a game.

Corinne Macdonald, marketing executive at Sea Life said: "We thought this would be a fun way to name our fantastic new crabs and would like to thank everyone for their nominations. It has been great fun reading through all the entries. The three winners will all be invited to a special VIP preview to meet their crabby counterparts."

The three Japanese Spider Crabs take centre stage in the attraction’s new Claws: Invasion exhibit, which opens on March 30 and features Deep Sea Spiny Crabs, colourful peacock mantis shrimp and tropical hermit crabs.

Alongside the creatures will be an interactive trail where guests can see if they’re as strong as a crab or as fast as a crab to win prizes.