Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[GotButterflies]

Lol!!! I would live in front of my tank too!!


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[mlakers]

No spawning action yesterday. Artemis is now hanging out in the high calcium pit I have in the middle of the tank. (It's just an upside down coconut hut hung from the corner guards that holds ground-up egg shells, powdered cuttlebone, dried crushed shrimp tails, and oyster shell grit.) It looks like she's sleeping.

It got really cool here overnight, so I let the temp in the tat go down a bit--still above 80, but I do like to let it get a bit cooler at night in general, anyway.

Also, last night as Miriam was walking on the wheel, I thought I saw eggs in her shell, too. So either I have two gravid females or I'm waaaay too obsessed/going crab-insane/seeing eggs everywhere.

Please. Send. Help.

[GotButterflies]

Lol! Love the updates! Just continue to try to have patience you and your crabbies are in my thoughts and prayers!


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[mlakers]

Um, no, I'm not obsessing. Why do you ask?

[Giner13]

Not at all!!!


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[mlakers]

The plastic spoon is just in case the eggs end up on the sand...SCOOP!!

[mlakers]

I now have three females all exhibiting spawning type behavior--hanging out of their shells, shifting uncomfortably, restlessness. One keeps pacing back and forth between the salt and fresh water. I've decided to sleep in the crab room tonight. Hubby suggested it. He really "gets" me.

[mlakers]

I've also been witnessing some really strange behavior from the male who mated with most or all of the gravid females. (I can only confirm two of the females mated with Kermit, my alpha male, who I'm 99% certain used to be female two molts ago. I'm guessing, as the biggest crab in my colony she stepped into the role. It's not that uncommon in fish and certain other invertebrates and I really have no other way to explain it. She's always been the noticeably largest crab, so I didn't get her confused with another.)

Anyway, the weird behavior was similar to guarding and others in here have talked about seeing guarding behavior in males right around the time of spawning, and they assumed it was about mating, but it doesn't look like mating to me...it looks as if the male is trying to control when and/or where the female spawns.

Lola just came out of hiding (she's one I can confirm mated with Kermit) and while edging toward the saltwater pool, she climbed up the edge of the tide pool (a smaller reptile rock with shallow saltwater) and fell in. She looked relieved and kind of sat there very still...then shooting out from nearby comes Kermit and he gets in the pool right away, too, and shoves Lola out, then follows behind her, pushing her away from the pool and back into the "woodsy" area where I have lots of large wood pieces and a chia garden and leaf litter. Essentially as far away from the saltwater "beach" as one can get in my tank.

Why would the male not want the female that he fertilized to spawn? She's a very small female, probably not especially experienced at this process...could Kermit be monitoring for the best conditions? That seems so unlikely, but I'm having trouble coming up with another explanation. It was a really swift reaction, like, "What are you doing? Get out of that tide pool now!" And if Kermit used to be a female, who better to know when conditions would be right? Just sayin'.

[mlakers]

Weird behavior continued all night. I woke two or three times between midnight and six am and each time three of the females were congregating up high in one corner, alert and shifting their shells around, so I left them to it. The fourth female (who I only just confirmed had eggs last night) kept pacing back and forth between the two pools, climbing on the edges, but not going in.

Each time I woke, I checked the sand for eggs, checked the water for zoea, nothing. Sometimes I left my red spot on, over the saltwater pool (like moonlight on the ocean, was my reasoning), but it didn't seem to make a difference being on or off so I turned it off after three am.

This morning, Artemis is sitting oddly, alone, near the wheel, and at the same end of the tank as the saltwater pool. In the rear of the tank, Kermit is guarding Lola and the other crab in the wide polished turbo that I thought was Blue (a male) but has eggs, so it must be Nala, who I thought was still down in the old tank. Gah!! These crabs!!

[mlakers]

Still no clue what the heck Kermit is doing, being all involved in the process and all. I can't imagine that happens in the wild. I've always thought of them as opportunistic maters, but maybe there are instances of colony behavior in the wild--with a main male and a harem of females. Maybe I should iso Kermit to give the females a chance to do their thing without him hovering, but then I think that nature has a wisdom that I can't know and I try to just observe like a scientist and not interfere.

But I so WANT to interfere!!!

[mlakers]

As of six thirty this evening, there are four gravid females pacing around the tat, climbing, walking on the wheel, and going back and forth to the saltwater pool. One female without eggs is also up and around. The men appear to be sleeping in.

Each time one of the females moves toward the saltwater pool, the others appear to take note and either watch closely or move that way, too. There seems to be a definite interest in WHEN someone else may or may not take the plunge. The tide pool is getting use and interest, but only for drinking and washing. The water in the big pool felt a little cool to me, so I took out a couple of the bigger rocks, warmed them in treated freshwater and then put them back in the pool to raise the temp just a degree or two.

And now, more waiting.

[mlakers]

And while we wait, two crabs in a wheel. Note how blue Artemis is and how reddish Miriam is.

[Giner13]

They're beautiful crabs!!!


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[mlakers]

Thank you! I'm pretty fond of them.

Officially feeling discouraged today, though. Two for sure still have eggs, and every time I go to check on them, someone is putting a toe in the saltwater, then shaking their head and backing away. I tested the temp, and it's pretty chilly, compared to the 83 degrees in the kreisel. Maybe they know it's too cold for the eggs to hatch?

So I put a tiny submersible heater in this morning. It's the 50watt preset one and only goes up to 78, but perhaps that will be enough of a bump to persuade SOMEONE to drop their eggs. I also bumped the temp of the tat up two degrees and misted. We shall see.

[GotButterflies]

Hang in their! Don't feel discouraged You have experienced crabs and they know what they are doing! Your crabs are beautiful! Thanks for the updates!!!


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