Breeding Idea by KyMart

[KyMart]

Interesting idea. Though since there are pleeeenty of eggs, it seems more urgent to improve the helping-the-eggs-survive part that is the bigger struggle, at least to start. more zoea are also more maintenance, so if there isnt the techniques/supplies/time/energy/whatever, it could backfire a bit, i think. I am ofc no expert but I love playing around with ideas, so have enjoyed pondering this. Thanks for sharing!

You're very welcome! And yes, I'm very aware of that! I just mean this would be good to explore for big captive bred breeders (such as Mary)! Because if they can figure out all of that, which we are improving upon every single year, egg counts is going to mater! I know Mary has helped people who have eggs get them to land by doing the hard part (aka caring for the zoea) in the past, in just saying the more eggs there are, the more crabs we could possibly get to land in captivity.

[aussieJJDude]

This is so cool! I have a question for you! Do you think that if we could replicate the sound waves crabs hear in nature in captivity that it would add extra stimulation and be beneficial to them? Do you have any ideas on how we could do this? There is so much to cover, and I think that it's a great point to talk about, which is why I shared it! This whole theory of mine is based on the notion that if you give crabs an environment in captivity that is close to their natrual environment they are more likely to breed. I think that this is very true, as many of the worlds top hermit crab captive breeders use care methods that do a good job of replicating nature. I feel that if we can find other ways to replicate nature within captivity we should, this is a thing we try to do with so many other animals. Providing animals with the kind stimulation that they get in nature can be very beneficial to their overall health, happiness, and much more! We have to make sure that this is a good kind of stimulation though, in order for it to be beneficial. I am very aware that many crabs produce eggs every years, but very few of them name it to land, and I wonder why that is? What if it's a source problem? What if the eggs are not are less fertile due to lack of natrual stimulation? Many animals have proven to be less fertile in captivity due to natrual stimulation, and breeders have worked very hard to replicate those stimulations, which in many cases has increased fertility. I also feel that some crabs are more fertile then others, just like some humans are more fertile then others! There are so many different theories as to what the best way to care for hermit crabs is, and so many different methods for caring for zoeae, and we learn more about both of these every year through trial and error. I feel that if we talk more about these theories and continue to test them we will learn so much more about these amazing animals. There is so much about them we have yet to understand, and I feel that we should explore them every chance we get.

I feel like it be very hard to replicate the sound of waves in captivity. The closest well get is just to use water and simulate a shoreline, but that would greatly decrease the amount of usable substrate to moult in.... so it's a double edge sword that will likely have very little benefit IMO.

I understand that, I am talking more about increasing egg numbers per year to hopefully get more to land, a lot of the eggs don't make it, whatever stage that be in, but if there where more eggs each year, aka more breeding, captive breeders would hopefully be able to land more captive bred babies.

The thing is, increasing egg numbers aren't the issue. It's the egg hatched to made to land ratio that's totally out of wack. So much time and energy goes into raising crabs in captivity, and it's simply due to their development that makes it an issue... and a hard one to overcome with ease. Other Land crabs somewhat circumvent the issue if they don't use water bodies to breed (especially coastal), as they have an abbreviated development stage and often hatch as mini replicas.... which makes the process a whole lot easier.


Now, some crabbers have definitely tried to circumvent this issue, as the majority of losses across all species seem to occur during the megalopa stage. Which is highly cannibalistic. Some breeders in Germany have had pretty good success by treating the young like fighting fish and keeping all the young separated in small makeshift pens, and I feel like it has cut down on the losses towards the end, but often met with losses from egg to freshly hatched young.

So unless one can facilitate having a large amount of tanks (or containers) to hold the developing young, unfortunately it's likely that losses will continue to occur at mass. Or keepers with aquatic experience come along, as they can overfeed, reducing predation of eachother without detriment to water quality.



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[CleverCrabCallsign]

If this was the senses talk that was part of crabcon 2022, this was done in collaboration with Kelsey and myself. And yes, crabs hearing is distinct from ourselves, but in a way, very similar!

Our ears respond to sound waves (air) through vibrations of little hair cells within our ear, which is the basis of how our crabs 'hear'.... but use the setae and overall 'fuzz' on their body that responds to environmental stimuli. But they are capable in 'hearing' from sound waves, its just they are more adjusted in 'hearing' through the ground in comparison to ourselves.



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I totally watched this when it hit YouTube. And then was trying to explain it as best I understood to some younger relatives who I also DM for in D and D. Middle kid got it immediately and was all "it's like tremorsense in D and D". Which actually kind of clarified it for me even better in a way. Smartass kids.

Great presentation, btw.

[mlakers]

Yes, as you say pleeenty of eggs. And each crab can spawn up to 10,000 eggs. I shipped out zoeae more than 40 times last year to aspiring breeders and none of the ones I shipped to were able to get their zoeae to land, even with mentoring, supplies, and crowdsourcing help through Hermit House breeders. Only one or two even got as far as the megalopa stage. Those are terrible odds, so the eggs aren't the issue so much as the crabs spawning correctly (first) then getting the zoeae through all of their stages. It takes about a month, start to finish, and in that month's time there are SO many things that can go wrong and result in massive losses. Here's hoping this breeding season will be more productive. :grouphug:

[GotButterflies]

I think a lot of it is patience, time, water quality, and then experience. When you have tried it and you know what you are dealing with, it gets more routine. Either way it's a lot of work regardless...