(UPI) A New York aquarium came to the rescue of a rare blue lobster spotted hanging out with the standard-color crustaceans in a supermarket's tank.

Danielle Morales said she was at Market 32 in Clifton Park with her young sons, Parker, 4, and Zachary, 3, when the boys insisted on visiting the lobster tank.

"We were walking and we went up to the tank and Parker goes, 'Hey! That one is blue!' And I thought, wow. That's weird. And I took a picture of it," Morales told WRGB-TV.

Morales opened Facebook on her phone and messaged the Via Aquarium in Schenectady.

"Once we contacted the aquarium and had the momentum, I went up to the counter and was like, 'Hey. The aquarium is going to call you. You might not want to sell that one," Morales said.

The young boys initially named the lobster Bluey after the popular cartoon character, but when they found out the sea creature was male, they changed his name to Bandit -- the animated dog's equally blue dad.

Via Aquarium officials collected Bandit from the store and said he is currently in quarantine and will join the rest of the facility's lobsters in October.

Rare lobster colors are often caused by a genetic mutation that can cause them to sport hues including orange, blue and white. An orange lobster at the University of New England recently hatched a clutch of eggs, and dozens of the babies share her rare coloration.

Cassidy Livingston of Via Aquarium said officials believe Bandit's color might be more based around his diet, as he is a darker shade of blue than some other blue lobsters that have been found.

"We're thinking it's possibly because of diet in this case," Livingston said. There's also a chance that he got more blue in color because of what he's eating. Like, if they're eating a lot of shrimp, that can cause color changes.

Copyright 2024 by United Press International