HCA: Hermit Crab Association

RockyGurly wrote: Sounds like a legitimate argument to me

exactly! I sign this, if you need an approval from Germany!

Some others I'm sure I've damaged myself with my turkey baster, but it's so hard to avoid hurting them and still clean up around them.

This happens to us, too. They are too tiny and wihtout enough light it is hard to see them.

yes they get the artemia orange colour but they are still transparent

OMG they are molting again, stage 3! And they almost look like the pre-meapola stage, like their legs are tucked up under their body and they are super fat. I'm going to try to get some good pictures of it today.

So it seems like it was 5 days for the first molt into stage 2 and then another 5 days to the next molt into stage 3. Here's the vids and pics!

That's amazing, Kuza! You are doing a fantastic job! Without looking over old posts, is the orange coloring unique to straw zoea? Your pics are great!


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Thanks! And they are bright orange because of the baby brine shrimp they eat, it's like florescent orange, lol

Careyenz wrote:Without looking over old posts, is the orange coloring unique to straw zoea?

mine are orange, too. But not as orange as Kuza's.
But in Kuza's jar they look more orange than mine. But it maybe is because of camera, the glass and the light.

They look great! And with enough brine shrimp as I can see


For me they do not look like pre-meapola stage. A closer look could help. Mostly all Zoea have the same fin at the last Zoea stage. It is like 5 pieces. And you should see the tiny legs in the stomange zone. And there should be little legs at the underside of the last part of the larvae.


Signs of last Zoea stage before transmorph to megalopa:
red arrow: little legs at the underside
blue arrow: legs like tubes, under stomage
black arrows: the fin has 5 pieces

WOW kuza! Once you get these to land I will have to buy some off you (trust me, you may want to keep them but chances are you wont have room for 20 little crabbies). I believe in you! YOU CAN GET THEM TO LAND!

They are so beautiful!

Thanks ladies And I will be willing to sell them to anyone willing to make the effort to get them and take good care of them, but it also depends on how many I get to land too, if any. If I only get a dozen then I wouldn't sell any but if I get more or even some from the second attempt next month then I'll start looking into what kind of license I need to set up a proper breeding shop. Do I need to even worry about that stuff? I'm getting ahead of myself again!

And thanks curlz, that clears it up for me!! And they look much more orange in the top of the jar then in the bottom when I look through the outside water then into the jar, so that may be why yours don't look as orange when they probably are. Mine are eating a lot of baby brine shrimp. I do over feed but I guess it's working. It's impossible to get rid of all the ones they don't eat so I just get as many as I can in my 50% water changes ever 12 hours.

I think after 10 days this proves aggressive water changes can keep the water healthy enough even when I over feed by A LOT. I still do an 80% water change with Jar switch every 2 days as well. This really clears up the jar, I should have taken video/pictures after that but I was too excited!

Way to go kuza! They look wonderful!

This is so amazing. The information is excellent and the pictures are wonderful.

Good luck. I can't wait for the updates

Thanks again

Curls/NAT, should I be adding fake plastic plants at all anytime soon? Will they want to hide or hang onto stuff at all before Meg stage?

kuza- they are so cute! I have been stalking this thread since the first post
And you are doing an awesome job!!!!

kuza wrote:Thanks again

Curls/NAT, should I be adding fake plastic plants at all anytime soon? Will they want to hide or hang onto stuff at all before Meg stage?

I would not. Not necessary.

At zoea stage they do not hang or climb. At megalopa stage the do not climb either. And I think, they do not really hide. The instinctly start to walk in the legs and hang on food. But there is no need for any hiding places or plastic things.

It only gets dirty.

Nothing is necessary for them to hide in or on at all. The only thing you need to worry about putting in is shells once they're megalopa!

ok thanks ladies!

When I have just a few megalopa and I put in shellswill the shells hurt the zoea that are being push around by the water? Some of my shells seem a bit sharp. Or should I try to put all the megalopa into 1 jar on their own?

And NAT, where did you get those long plastic yellow tweezers you have? I can't seem to find any at the stores near me.