HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Can anyone help me?

I would like to start breeding... Any ideas on tank setups etc?

The tank must be godly.


Crabbers unite!!!

From what I understand, hermit crabs, although they do occasionally breed and produce eggs, they don't survive for long. Maybe 10 days. The conditions they need are too difficult, if not impossible , to recreate.

I think I did see a post recently that someone here did finally get some to survive. I imagine someone will come along soon to confirm this.

Actually several HCA'ers have successfully bred, but the crabs are very teeny tiny, and i guess haven't been alive very long. I will post each sticky for you i think i read all of them. I think most/all of them include details on their tats.


Crabbers unite!!!

Nat: viewtopic.php?t=91033
Kuza: viewtopic.php?t=94071
Curlz: viewtopic.php?t=88646
Naalide: viewtopic.php?t=94905
I just realized you'd posted in Health and Breeding, where these are all Stickies'd. But i got so far so i'll finish
Wolf: viewtopic.php?t=87620

Crabbers unite!!!

There are only three hobbyists in the world who have provided photos of successfully getting zoea to land, and one of those has been disputed by the German forums. We still have a lot to learn, but breeding hermit crabs requires a knowledge of salt-water aquariums and captive-breeding of saltwater animals, and the understanding that the zoea are cannibalistic and will eat each other before they mature enough to wear shells if they are kept together. I never like to tell anyone it's impossible because it's not, but it does require a serious amount of dedication.

Okay
Thanks

Can't be much more difficult than breeding saltwater fish with the different salt water concentrations. Clown fish are pretty sensitive. You'll need a HUGE tank. More water=more stability. It's not impossible. When I graduate soon I plan on starting a breeding operation.

I would highly suggest checking out some forums on breeding clown fish. It is a huge time and money commitment to obtain and maintain the proper set-up.

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavour!

Not only is it hard to raise the larval stages of the crab, but it's also hard to get your crabs to mate. The crabs don't usually mate unless they've been in the tank for several years, in addtion to that their set up must be extremly nartual, mimicking what it would be in the wild.

Breeding hermit crabs commercially is not economical, that's why all crabs sold are wild caught. I've only heard of one place that had cb hermit crabs, but I think it was for select customers only. Unfortunately that place is no longer open.

I've heard purple pinchers are the hardest species to breed and that ausssies are the easiest. Aussies aren't yet avalibile in thr U.S. so I wouldnt counting on getting a pair unless you live in Australia.

A lot of people get Purple Pinchers carrying eggs in the summer. June-Aug. They are very hard to see since they hold them so far back in the shell, and they often leave them around the tank instead of in the water dish when they're mature, and the other crabs will eat them. It takes good conditions and happy crabs, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of time limit on how long they've been in captivity before they start reproducing. I've had females that were less than a year in captivity carry eggs. I'm not sure what the secret is for females to spawn aside from being at least a medium in size. At most I've only found 5 out of about 20-25 mature females with eggs in any season, but again, the eggs are so incredibly hard to see!

Most people also use plastic containers for pools, etc. etc. I wouldn't want to drop my eggs in there either! I think you would need a bigger pool of water that is already cycled with live growing plants/microorganisms in it to entice a crab with eggs to lay there. Like hermitcrab101 said, you have to make it as natural as possible. Stability is the key here! They won't breed if conditions are constantly changing.

From what I've seen here, having them breed isn't the hardest part.....it's successfully raising the zoea that's so difficult. I've seen a lot of posts about crabs carrying eggs or babies/eggs found in pools or dumped elsewhere. There's even less posts about crabbers trying to raise those babies. And then, only the few previously mentioned that raised any to land.

My crabitats are far from perfect little slices of nature and I've found zoea twice in the saltwater pools. Too late but they were there....not that I'd have been able to raise them anyway.

Breezy, go for it! Read what the others did. I've always thought some sort of aquarium with a large ocean like wave pool would be the perfect place to try the experiment again. Some sort of cloth to keep them from getting pulled into the pumps would be necessary. I saw a shoreline wave pool at the aquarium in Monterey and feel like something that huge (and well monitored) might just lead to successful breeding.

Just my 2 cents. I am very inexperienced and have 2 male crabs so no chances of zoea (assuming they were even happy).


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