Fiddler crab eggs!

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:57 pm

I got a new PP on the weekend (see post in New crabs and owners), and my fiddler light was on Lightning, the new crab. I decided to check on my fiddlers today, as they have not been around lately, as far as I could see. Well, wouldn't you know it!

Luna had eggs in a little purple "sponge" under her tail.

Wasn't able to get a pic, but there honestly isn't that much to see. I don't want to hurt her or the eggs, so I won't hold her until the eggs hatch, if they hatch.

Anyone know what I should do?

I contacted NarNar, and I'll see what she says. I'm so excited, although I'm not sure if they'll survive...

Ryan

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:55 pm

wow, how cool! I followed you here from your allusion to this post in the Pictures forum.

I hardly know anything about fiddler crabs, but I hope it turns out well for you! Babies would be cool.

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:45 pm

Yeah, I know, but that's the tricky part. I think I will ISO Luna in a few days in her own tank until she realeases the eggs.

Then I'll put her back in the main tank, so she doesn't eat them. I won't use a filter, as that would suck up the eggs, and kill them. Then I'll see how it goes...

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:27 pm

Well, I set up a tank for Luna to hatch her eggs in, which I'll take her out after. There is no filter in the tank so that the eggs don't get sucked up. With Lightning in ISO right now, Luna about to go into her own tank, and my main two fiddler and hermit tanks, I currently have four tanks going, which is twice what I usually have.

Hope Lightning will molt soon, so she can join the others.

Ryan

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:11 pm

THE EGGS HATCHED!!!!!!!!!! :wootjump:

There are now ToNs of fiddler crab larvae in the tank.

See sig... They really are about this size >. I can't really see them, as they are so tiny, but they do move around. And I got pics of Luna before she released the eggs! (I figured out the Macro zoom on my mom's camera! Yahoo!

)

Kind of look like miniature Caviar, don't they?

What's interesting is each individual egg is several times larger than the actual larvae inside.

Luna, the mother of the crabs, changes color from day to night... Weird?

Day:

Night:

I read somewhere that Halloween crabs stay in this larval stage for about a month... then they start to grow into something recognizable. Anyone know how long it will take for them to grow? I personally have not been very successful in searching.

~Ryan~

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 10:29 pm

Thats pretty awsome Ryan!

What a big undertaking

obvously your fids are doing great in your tank for them to mate

. I found a site on breeding and rearing Red Clawed crabs mabye fidds are similar....anyway here is the link

[Link no longer works]

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:44 pm

Well... don't know how to say this really... ok...

There are barely 5 live larvae now in the tank, I believe.

After reading that diary Silent Protagonist, I knew I had been doing quite a few things wrong.

For one thing, they need much deeper water. I was not monitoring the nitrates either. I did not have a bubbler, as I thought that it would stir up the larvae too much. As I did not have a filter, the water was not being circulated. I did not know how to change the water without hurting them.

Also, I fed them fish food, not knowing what else to feed, but they need liquid food. That was quite the informative site, Silent Protagonist.

I'm thinking of taking a dead one to school to look at under a microscope, as I would really like to see one up close, and maybe get a pic (if I can).

I'm thinking of devoting full time the effort to successfully breed them. I am pretty sure that it has never, ever been done before, except with those red-clawed crabs, but it's worth a try. If one person did it, then I think I can, too. Now I just need to get my hands on a bigger tank... and some liquid food. And, of course, Luna has to be willing to trust me with a new litter

. That's the hardest part. But if I darken the tank like before for half a week...

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to try it again!

Ryan

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:26 pm

I'm sorry about that.

Good luck if you want to try again, though! Again, keep us posted. I read that whole diary on the site SilentProtagonist posted, too, and it was very interesting.

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:54 pm

Don't see any larvae anymore.

I will definately try again, of course, if Luna and Poseidon continue to be "Fiddler romantics"

. I am just trying to find a few things first, like liquid food, and an artemia hatchery.

And Artemia eggs, of course. Know where I could find any of that?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:18 pm

Ryanstein wrote:Well... don't know how to say this really... ok...

There are barely 5 live larvae now in the tank, I believe.

After reading that diary Silent Protagonist, I knew I had been doing quite a few things wrong. For one thing, they need much deeper water. I was not monitoring the nitrates either. I did not have a bubbler, as I thought that it would stir up the larvae too much. As I did not have a filter, the water was not being circulated. I did not know how to change the water without hurting them. Also, I fed them fish food, not knowing what else to feed, but they need liquid food. That was quite the informative site, Silent Protagonist.

I'm thinking of taking a dead one to school to look at under a microscope, as I would really like to see one up close, and maybe get a pic (if I can).

I'm thinking of devoting full time the effort to successfully breed them. I am pretty sure that it has never, ever been done before, except with those red-clawed crabs, but it's worth a try. If one person did it, then I think I can, too. Now I just need to get my hands on a bigger tank... and some liquid food. And, of course, Luna has to be willing to trust me with a new litter . That's the hardest part. But if I darken the tank like before for half a week...

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to try it again!

Ryan

Glade to be of help!

Hopefully you will be able to successfully breed and raise captive- bred Uca Pugnax That would be a big step in keeping fiddlers and crabs in general! I think that it is awesome you will try again, I was even considering breeding them myself, however I decided that I would rather try something like that later when I am out of school( lol duh what was I thinking). If you have any questions on ph, nitrite and nitrate levels you can ask me via pm or you can go to this cool site for Aqautic Hoobyists.

[Link no longer works]

I got most of my information on all the chemical stuff in water from that site ( particularly that artical) . I highly recommend reading if you want to try breeding fidds. It is also information that you could apply to hermit crabs to

. I thought that before I were to get fiddlers I wanted to know stuff about water quality like you would for fish so my fiddlers would be in the ideal water so, essentially I would have a freshwater setup but for strictly fiddlers. One thing that you should rememeber is that I do not think that Luna (awsome name) will be willing to mate for a wile sense she just gave birth, however this is a good thing because you can use this time to pack your brain with knowledge on water and stuff till she ie ready

Keep us informed.

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:22 pm

Yeah, I intend to wait. Trust me, I don't blame her, she only just released the eggs in the last week and a half. I don't expect anything for another few months (I'm hoping

). I will have to stock up on the necessary supplies for the tank, including the tank itself. I don't want to buy a tank that I will never use again, just for breeding the Fidds (I like that short expression

). *I'm thinking out loud here* If I bought a tank, then I would have to sell it after, as I just don't have the space. But my friend was thinking of getting Fidds this summer, and he was going to buy a tank for them... maybe I'll do that. I'll give it to him as part of a birthday present, if he wants.

Thanks for that page! I'll bookmark it right now...

Any new ideas I'll post here.

~Ryan

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 7:39 pm

I see what you are saying. Because say if you were to setup a tank and the to crabs never mated again then you would have a empty,cycled tank which would be kinda waist of money. However on the other had if she did produce eggs you would not have time to cycle a tank before the eggs hatched and it would be a repeat of this time.

kinda a sticky situation....

But one thing that I would suddgest is that you do not get any more fiddlers. Because mabye the breeding hormmones would be lost if more crabs were introduced..hmmm.

I will try to find more stuff on breeding fiddlers.

Oh yeah! And I think Luna was like some Greek God or somthing same with Poisidon which is also a awsome name.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:01 pm

But one thing that I would suddgest is that you do not get any more fiddlers. Because mabye the breeding hormmones would be lost if more crabs were introduced..hmmm.

However. It seems like you could delay them mating again by purchesing another female. This way you could get more knowledge under your belt before starting trying to be breed again. {Thinking out loud here} My only concern with that is that mabye the bond between Luna and Poisidan might be brocken and they would not breed again, because mabye you have to have 1 male and 1 female fiddlers in a tank alone for a couple months so as to get them "used" (excuse the term) to each other(?). But then again, it seems like in the wile that that would not matter since most of the time with invertabrates they do not need to be together for anyleagth of time. And with fiddlers, the males wave there claws at the entrace to there burrows trying to atract the females into there borrows to mate, so it seems like they would not need to be together for any leagth of time....

I am just voiceing my thoughts, lol

Ryanstein · Post by **Ryanstein** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:26 pm

Silent Protagonist wrote:But one thing that I would suddgest is that you do not get any more fiddlers. Because mabye the breeding hormmones would be lost if more crabs were introduced..hmmm.

I agree. I did not actually want to buy any others for a while now. I want to try getting them to mate first, then maybe get another two (male and female). Thanks for that site!

Since the eggs need to be with Luna for about two weeks, that would be nough time to cycle the tank, presuming I have everything. I know now what I need to get, and I found an artemia hatchery and eggs on petdiscounters.com:

[Link no longer works]

I also found what looked like a suitable filter, which will not suck up the eggs, I think

:

[Link no longer works]

Does this seem to be a good filter? I don't really want to do water changes 2-3 times per week.

I also need a heater, tank, nitrate and nitrite (I think that's it) mesuring tools. Anything else?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:47 am

Those seem like good products in my opinion at least from the what the description says , thise bit seems to confirm that "Excellent for use in brine shrimp and baby fish tanks. Easy to clean and will last years under normal use. Made in the USA. And since you would be using it for "baby" fidds it seems like it would work well. However I would ask about these products on aqautic hobbyist I bet there are people on there that breed aqautic animals they would probably know much better than me on what products to use.

As for measuring the trace elements in water there are kits for measuring each one which typicaly sell for $5 $10 but I say a kit made by Instant Ocean that came with all of the kits to measure ph,kh,gh,Ammonia,nitrate nitrite etc it sounded it had all the kits and it came with a hygrometer which you need to measure the gravity in salt water, and it was selling for about $45.95 so it seemed like a good deal however I would also ask about test kits on aqautic hobbyist

And I can only think of two things you are missing and those are the following.
1. couple of air stones to acshinate the water
2 Air pump and Air line tubing
3. And a light, most (if not all) aqautic animals need light and apparently they are a absolute requirement for breeding Red Claws so I imagine it is the same thing for fiddlers.

Othet than the above I can not think of anything more but I would still double check with were else... aqautic hobbyist

And the tank size I think would have to be like mabye a 29gal? mabye larger? It just has to be high enough for the water to have enought surface area and it aslo has to be considerbably Wide.

here is another site that you might be able to find the size you need.

www.glasscages.com They sell tanks for decent prices and you can also get your aqauriams with a built in dranage for easer water changes. And you can also order EVERYTHING you need to build you own custom tank, cool site

.