How to tell if hermit crab is a male or female

This area is dedicated to the pioneers who have captive bred crabs, and for those who wish to learn more or attempt it themselves. Also for inquiring about the gender of your crabs.
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Crab2233
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How to tell if hermit crab is a male or female

Post by Crab2233 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:06 pm

Is there a way to tell if your hermit crab is a female by seeing how big it is? If it's big does it mean it's a female? I have 5 hermit crabs and still can't figure out the gender of them without the hard thing trying to find their gonopores. Is there any other ways to tell of the gender of my hermit crabs? Thankyou!(:(:(:

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aussieJJDude
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Re: How to tell if hermit crab is a male or female

Post by aussieJJDude » Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:41 pm

Females also have hair like appendages on their abdomen which can only be seen when they changing shells. They called pleopods.

Edit. Otherwise no, size, colour, hairyness or other physical features besides gonopores are not reliable.

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Renroc
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Re: How to tell if hermit crab is a male or female

Post by Renroc » Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:18 am

aussieJJDude wrote:Females also have hair like appendages on their abdomen which can only be seen when they changing shells. They called pleopods.

Edit. Otherwise no, size, colour, hairyness or other physical features besides gonopores are not reliable.

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Females have 2 dots at the base of their rear legs. These are genopores which is where they place the sperm sacks the males pass to them during mating. Males don't have any dots.


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Crazy crab lady with 1 male raised in captivity who is now 7 yrs old (Dec 23) and a 2 females I've added from rehoming or adoptions to add to my breeding colony.

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Renroc
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Re: How to tell if hermit crab is a male or female

Post by Renroc » Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:31 am

I've been able to see the undersides of 2 of my babies and am pretty sure those 2 are females. 3 others yet to be checked.


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Crazy crab lady with 1 male raised in captivity who is now 7 yrs old (Dec 23) and a 2 females I've added from rehoming or adoptions to add to my breeding colony.

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