A rare orange lobster has found a new home at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. The lobster, named ‘Crush’ after the Denver Broncos’ legendary Orange Crush defense, was rescued from a shipment of crustaceans delivered to a Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado.
The bright orange crustacean was spotted by a long-term employee, who is both a dishwasher and head biscuit maker, while unpacking the shipment last Friday. The employee alerted restaurant managers, who then contacted aquarium officials.
“Myself and many of my team are born and raised Denver Broncos fans, so as soon as we saw that orange color, we knew that Crush would be an excellent representation,” said Kendra Kastendieck, the restaurant’s general manager. “And we all want our defensive line to be that good again.”
When the Pueblo Zoo couldn’t take Crush, Kastendieck reached out to the Downtown Aquarium, who expressed immediate interest. Kastendieck packed Crush with ice packs in a plastic foam container and delivered him to the aquarium on Wednesday.
“As soon as they acclimated him to his quarantine tank at the Denver aquarium, he was very active right off the bat and was really exploring his little area,” Kastendieck said Thursday. Staff had set up the tank with a new generation Denver Broncos helmet on top and an older generation one sitting in the tank “so he can actually climb into it and play around it,” she said.
Crush will be examined by a veterinarian and after 30 days in quarantine will be placed in the ‘Lurks’ exhibit, which houses other cold water North Atlantic Ocean species, aquarium staff said. “We are thrilled to be able to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the community and visitors to Colorado,” Ryan Herman, general curator at Denver Downtown Aquarium, said in a statement.
Crush was shipped to the Pueblo restaurant from a supplier in Tennessee. It was caught off a coast of Canada, said Kastendieck, but she was unable to confirm which coast. Genetic mutations can lead to lobsters that are orange, blue and yellow. The Downtown Aquarium has had one orange lobster previously.
The Downtown Aquarium has more than 700 species of fish along with a stingray reef and three Sumatran tigers.