Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[aprilmay]

Rooting for you mlakers!!! You've gotten all the way to MEGALOPA on first try! that's amazing!
Looking forward to next time!

[mlakers]

We'll, if that last female I've had my eye on drops eggs, it will probably be tonight. Still no visual confirmation of the eggs, but mating behavior occurred twenty-six days ago and she's been very "broody" ever since. Tonight she's hanging out by the saltwater pool and also sort of hanging out of her shell a bit, too, all behaviors my other females exhibited before spawning.

As renroc said, I'm much more relaxed. If it happens, it happens. And if it does happen, I plan to keep my sanity and just do the minimum and see what results that brings. I'm honestly still a little burned out from the first batch. Who knows, that could end up working out best for them and for me if I'm not so obsessive about every little detail.

[GotButterflies]

Good luck!


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[mlakers]

Still no larvae in the pool, but I got visual confirmation of the eggs...not in the shell of the one I thought (Gilda, who may still have them, but I haven't seen them) but Lola has eggs again. She is my next to smallest crab and one of the ones who spawned in the earlier attempt in August. I'm really surprised that she has eggs again now -- twice in two months.

So I freshened up the pool with all new saltwater, added the little heater to keep it at 78 degrees, and just generally tried to make it exactly as I had it before when they successfully spawned.

Just before coming to bed tonight, I found Lola in the back corner where the one crab threw her eggs on a log a few weeks ago. Hoping Lola doesn't do that, too, but I'm determined not to worry myself sick this time around. She was fiddling with the eggs, moving them around inside the shell with one of those tiny inside appendages, and then bringing it to her mouth. I've caught sight of my brooding females doing this quite a few times. The first time, I was convinced the crab was eating her own eggs, but the more times I've watched, and the more I've read, I think they are either coating them with saliva to make them stick together or using saliva to keep the eggs from sticking to the grooming appendage when she is manipulating them. I liken it to a bird turning its eggs in the nest. It's that same sort of rolling motion, as if keeping the eggs turned in order to be sure they all have an equal shot at the warmest spot.

[mlakers]

Lola is still holding onto the eggs. She's been hanging out of her shell on and off all day, so I've seen the egg mass quite a few times. It's very nicely dark grey and not small. If she gets them into the pool, it will be a ton of zoeae. My only concern is that she hasn't been pacing back and forth to the saltwater pool this time around like she did before. Hopefully she'll get them to the water and we'll have another shot. Now it's just a waiting game.

[mjjluver]

woohoo!
:grouphug:

[GotButterflies]

That is so interesting!!! I'm very excited for you!!


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[mlakers]

Well, sadly she dropped them on the sand. I checked before bed at about 11pm, and she was still holding onto them. I briefly considered whether or not I should try placing her in the saltwater, but since it worked last time, I didn't. I got up at 6am and checked and she appeared to be in roughly the same spot, but I was sleepy and didn't do a thorough check. At 8:30, I decided to check more thoroughly and saw a spot on the sand that looked like an uneven patch of slightly bluer sand. It was roughly the size of a quarter and a couple of inches away there was another one about the size of a dime.

It looked so much like sand that I wasn't sure if it was eggs or not, but I thought it might be so I got a spoon and scooped them up and put them in saltwater. They sank as a clump so I turned up the bubbler. A few of the eggs then burst open, but the zoeae that emerged were not moving. I've been stirring the clumps and they have rehydrated some and look much more like eggs now, but I don't think there will be any survivors.

I'm thinking they must have been on the sand for longer than just an hour or two and I missed them because the light was still off at 6:30 and my flashlight didn't catch them. I was mostly just checking the pool. She didn't drop them even close to the pool, so my instincts were right last night when I worried that she wasn't repeatedly checking the saltwater pool. This is all useful information for the future.

In the meantime, the eggs are bubbling away, just in case someone revives. I'll turn off the bubbler and check for any survivors in about an hour, but I'm not optimistic. I'm pretty sure there won't be any. I'm somewhat disappointed, but equally relieved, honestly. I've got several trips away from home coming up, and I had no idea how I would do water changes for those few days. Such a roller coaster.

[mlakers]

Update: There are survivors!!! Holy cow, these guys never cease to amaze me with their tenacity and fierce will to live. More later.

[Renroc]

Hi there and congrats. I had one lot deposited in the sand too. I think she changed her mind and then went to the pool. They are hardy critters.


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[Renroc]

Know how you feel about trips away. I'm gone last weekend in October and first weekend of dec. will be home between. Last lot were 4th dec hatching day.


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[Renroc]

Your babies seem to be way out of season though.


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[Just Jay]

Your babies seem to be way out of season though.


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I'm sure being in a tank with ideal or probably better conditions will promote breeding. At least that's how it works with birds.

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[mlakers]

Your babies seem to be way out of season though.
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Yeah, I thought so, too. And this is her second batch. Crazy. I will say, though, that we had a super odd summer. Very cool and rainy for most of the summer. Then in September we were getting record high temperatures--in the 90s, so maybe that could have something to do with it. I also had the thermostat fairly high in August while the first batch were brooding. That may have stimulated the second batch.

[mlakers]

Know how you feel about trips away. I'm gone last weekend in October and first weekend of dec. will be home between. Last lot were 4th dec hatching day.


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If you get eggs again this year will you raise them? I honestly never would have suspected that blue spot on the sand was discarded eggs if I hadn't known she had them and how close she was to spawning. I showed my husband and he said, "That's just sand." Which is exactly what it looked like. I wasn't even sure until I put them in the water. I'm glad the isopods didn't find them first.