Rare orange lobster goes from dinner plate to Denver aquarium

DENVER, Colorado — A rare orange lobster that was rescued from a shipment of crustaceans delivered to a Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado, can now be found at Denver’s Downtown Aquarium.

Aquarium officials said a dishwasher and head cookie maker at the restaurant spotted the bright orange lobster while unpacking a shipment last week and alerted restaurant managers. Staff named it Crush, after the Denver Broncos’ legendary Orange Crush defense from 1976 to 1986.

Kastendieck called the Downtown Aquarium when the Pueblo Zoo couldn’t pick up Crush. The aquarium was immediately interested.

Kastendieck packed Crush with ice cubes in a plastic foam container and delivered it to the aquarium this week.

“Once they got him acclimated to his quarantine tank at the Denver Aquarium, he immediately became active and began exploring his little space,” The Associated Press reported, quoting Kastendieck.

The staff set up a tank with a new generation Denver Broncos helmet on top and an older generation helmet inside the tank.

Aquarium staff said a veterinarian would examine Crush and, after 30 days of quarantine, he would be moved to the “Lurks” enclosure, which houses other cold-water North Atlantic species.

A supplier in Tennessee shipped Crush to the Pueblo restaurant. It was caught off the coast of Canada, Kastendieck said, but she could not confirm which coast.

Genetic mutations can result in lobsters that are orange, blue and yellow. Downtown Aquarium has had one orange lobster.

The Downtown Aquarium is home to over 700 species of fish, a stingray reef and three Sumatran tigers.