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Hot Crab-on-Crab Action!!!

pixelpixi

pixelpixi

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My little blue legged hermit crabs have been attached to each other for hours. Since the little one isn't dead yet, I think they're mating.

My understanding is that the little one is female and she'll carry the eggs around, then they'll hatch and float around in the water before settling down, sprouting legs, and looking for little baby-sized shells. If they are indeed mating, is there any way I can raise the babies? I'm guessing a need a separate tank with no filtration and some rotifers?

I couldn't find much information about hermit reproduction (aside from land hermit crabs), but I did find this: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/6/195018/0120/44/470845

Or maybe they are fighting and I'll have a dead crab in the morning. :-
 
Capturing them (larvae) and raising the larvae is not an easy task (rarely accomplish). First feed would not be rotifers but something much small, more on the order of phytoplankton.
 
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=4437.msg53955#msg53955 date=1219979916]
Capturing them (larvae) and raising the larvae is not an easy task (rarely accomplish). First feed would not be rotifers but something much small, more on the order of phytoplankton.
[/quote]

Well, I was thinking that rather than trying to capture the larvae, I'd move the mother to a separate tank before they hatch, then remove her after. Do you know of any books or other resources that might help me? I realize it's difficult, kind of silly for such a common species, and will likely result in failure... but yet it still kind of sounds like fun to try. :D
 
[quote author=pixelpixi link=topic=4437.msg53958#msg53958 date=1219982531]
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=4437.msg53955#msg53955 date=1219979916]
Capturing them (larvae) and raising the larvae is not an easy task (rarely accomplish). First feed would not be rotifers but something much small, more on the order of phytoplankton.
[/quote]

Well, I was thinking that rather than trying to capture the larvae, I'd move the mother to a separate tank before they hatch, then remove her after. Do you know of any books or other resources that might help me? I realize it's difficult, kind of silly for such a common species, and will likely result in failure... but yet it still kind of sounds like fun to try. :D

[/quote]

The problem with in tank is all the predators as in copepods, amphipod, mysids, etc. That's why you've never herd about some hobbyist doing it. If you want to read up on stuff like this head over to www.marinebreeders.org (best place) or www.projectdibs.com
 
http://diatribune.com/marine-life-series-hermit-crab-reproduction-and-torpor

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hermitreprofaqs.htm

:D
 
Just a warning, but when my hermit crabs did that, they killed each other and the shrimp pulled it apart. Then the current blasted it through the tank and the clown fish yanked it apart. Then the peppermints swam up and ripped all the remaining legs off and one leg fell in on a polyp. The polyp closed up and died because the leg and then algae started to grow on the dead hermit crab's shell and another hermit crab moved into it. The other hermit crabs started to do this and eventually... Well.... All the hermit crabs went off and died in the back where i couldn't reach them, the phosphate levels went up and then my biggest snail died. The hermit crabs I bought at the LFS a few days before the snail died ate the snail and then algae started to grow on the shell. Then the Xenia moved onto the shell and died! All because the hermit crabs were fighting over a dumb shell. :'(
 
Yeah, you should provide plenty of empty shells for your hermit crabs, preferably ones just a little bigger than the one's they're currently in. They won't fight or kill snails if they have plenty of shells to try on.
 
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