HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm sorry to hear that about your latest ones. I now know how hard it is to lose them.

I think some of the ones I have left have bacteria on them that I can sometimes get off buy "hosing" them with the dropper in the jar. But for sure I see white dots on them that I can remove sometimes.

And when you say change the food, how long do you leave the frozen mysis/kirll in the tank for them to eat? I would leave it for at least half a day. maybe that was too long?

And I'm down to 8 megalopa today, 2 per jar. The ones that haven't eaten each other I think died from bacteria.

So kuza, any showing interest in the shells recently? I hope that they all make it to land! I WANT A CAPTIVE BRED STRAW!!!!!

no shell action yet

I'd remove uneaten food after an hour or so, just to cut down on the nasties (it's what I do with my aquatic frog)
Just an idea?
I hope they start taking shells soon

OMG one of them is in a shell, he doesn't stay in it's but he's in and out of it!!! i'm almost done the transition tank but it's not ready yet, omg I need to hurry now.

You little ripper!

I'm very sorry for your recent losses. Sounds like the best option is to jar each megalopa individually in order to ensure any kind of survival rate. I know it's not a very appealing choice, and I can genuinely relate to the difficulties entailed as for a couple of years I raised bettas and all males (and even some females) have to be individually jarred once they reach the age/size where they start showing aggression. Many betta breeders regularly have 200+ individually jarred bettas to take care of. Since water quality is so absolutely crucial during this stage (as you know), that means daily full water changes of each jar (or similar container). This process can be made much more simple by having a large bucket of already prepared clean water ready and extra jars. This way the clean empty jars can be quickly filled with the new water and the megalopa simply being switched over into it (depending on their size, a turkey baster could work to easily suck them up out of the old jar and into the new one). Wode's suggestion of using a plastic storage bin filled with a sufficient depth of water and placing heater in that along with the individual jars in order to heat them is the method I would recommend as well regarding temperature control.

If you're absolutely averse to manual daily water changes there is another method that could be used that would filter the water in all the containers in the tub (but not pose any escape risk) but would require jarring them in plastic or acrylic containers as well as having a fairly powerful filter. Probably not worth it unless you're dealing with a pretty large amount of megalopa at one time (imo), but if you'd be interested in detailed directions on that method just let me know.

right now I'm using multiple jars, there's 2 left in each jar for a total of 8 megalopa left. And I do full water changes every day using my second set of jars and the turkey baster.

I would be very interested in the filter method though, anything to make things easier would be good since my time if very limited. Thanks!!

kuza wrote:right now I'm using multiple jars, there's 2 left in each jar for a total of 8 megalopa left. And I do full water changes every day using my second set of jars and the turkey baster.

I would be very interested in the filter method though, anything to make things easier would be good since my time if very limited. Thanks!!

Haha, well you're already one step ahead of me since you're already doing the daily changes and even with the turkey baster lol. Would you rather me PM you the details of the filter method or go ahead and post it here?

Might as well post here so other people can also have the chance to learn about it. Even if I don't manage to do it someone else might.

So exciting!! I was away at work all last week, but I couldn't help but log on every night just to read your updates! Kuza, that's fabulous news!


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Down to 5 megalopa, they just can't help killing each other but I have 5 jars going with 1 megalopa and 3-4 shells in each. I think a second one is now grabbing onto the shells and starting to feel them out. They do this for a couple hours before they realize "OMG I can fit into this thing!" and starting putting their tail in. I have a picture I'm going to post soon that shows the shell with the little crab legs sticking straight up into the air out of the hole.

I didn't have time to upload any video's yet but here's the first megalopa in shell. Check those tiny legs sticking up into the air. He hasnt' turned it over yet, her just sits here like this for a while, then get sout, check the shell again, sometimes goes into another shell for a bit.

OMG, so happy for you kuza!
CONGRATS!

The need some days to 'lean' that they need shells and how to get into it. And how to stay in it

I put them into transition pool when they stay in the shells for several hours.
But even they stayed some hours, they went out and act like megalopa with shells

In my successfull experiment we changed the frozen food 2-3 times a day (24h). Up to 8 h.

When they are about to stay in shells, I think they had the hardest part done.
The next hardest part is to transmorph into land hermit crabs. Their first and important molt.

About the loss: you should not forget that even in nature only 1-5% will make it onto land and get a land hermit crab.

I think to have one megalopa in one jar is a good way. One piece of food in each. Plus a piece of algae-pellets (food pellets for crabs and shrimps). Daily cleaning and water changing as you already did.... it MUST work, darn! *fingers crossed extremely*