DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE

This is where you discuss the conditions of your crabitat -- temperature, humidity, substrate, decorating, etc.

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Post by Guest » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:43 pm

The goal for the water for the zoea would be to emulate seawater as much as possible (without the predators that would eat much of the zoea)-floating mini-organisms like the phytoplankton and spirulina above, seawater-like, precise and stable salt levels, and the nitrogen fixing bacteria would be necessary.

It is possible to prepare nitrogen fixing bacteria in the zoea's water before they even get there :).

http://www.algone.com/fishless_cycling.php

To accomplish this, one would need to set up two environments within each other...

Environment A: Your hermit crabs, and the prospective crab parents. You would need to have the crab conditions we aim for, while simultaneously inducing conditions that would make the crabs mate in the wild.

Environment B: What amounts to a mini-saltwater tank within environment A. Needs to have conditions to support Zoea when they are born, and it also needs to aid with mating conditions, perhaps having tides if possible.

Before beginning, I would suggest weeks/months of research/planning (and saving :D)-finding out what makes crabs mate in the wild is the first major step (Requiem's idea of contacting marine biologists specializing in crustaceans is an excellent one). Afterwards, (assuming your crabs begin mating dependably) focusing on having their zoea survive to shell wearing, air breathing mini-crabs is the second major step.

It might be a good idea in my opinion to have your regular crabitat, and then have a mating/breeding tank seperate from it-with all the work that needs to be done eventually, it would be a nuisance to the crabs if you did all that work on their tank constantly :D.

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blaze88
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Post by blaze88 » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:20 pm

hey if you know any crustacean biologists. I have no idea where to even start looking.

Also, I plan to follow all my variables with all the information I can find on Florida. I am even going to beg relatives to mail me sandy dirt from Florida!

I am an experienced aquarist, but the thing is I have never done salt before. So all of the ammonia stuff is familiar and everything else that refers to fresh I can handle, but salinity, not so much.

I am going to use real sea water that you can buy, its from the west coast. I think California, would tat be super different then FL water? Would I have to dilute it, or add salt, or raise the pH? What should I do to make it more Atlantic?

Also I am setting up a brand new tank for the maters, and all my crabs, but following one of the articles posted here I will be transferring the zoea away. The conditions I have found for mater are just being outside. Tammy from the crabbage patch had a large outdoor cage. And she had no ocean setup fancy stuff. Thats why I am doing the ocean set up fancy plus lights simulating lunar cycles, actual solar and lunar times in southern FL, waves and actual Florida seasonal average temperatures.
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