HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I figured there was no need to wait until I got my straws to land before making a thread about it. And who knows how many tries this will take if it even works at all. But I've had live zoea in my water dish so I'm going to document the whole process with pictures and video.

Luckily I happened to catch the conception/copulation on video even as detailed as being able to see the gonopods exiting the gonopores. Here's the link to the thread with the mating videos;

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=93928&p=863386#p863386

And below is the first time I noticed zoea in my water dishes. Sadly most of the eggs were dumped in the fresh water dish so they they were already dead and I didn't have a spare air pump so the live ones didn't last 24 hours.I will be prepared next time! These could have been straws, blues or E's really. I haven't been checking anyone for eggs!



And this picture I took June 17th, about a week after copulation. It's kind of blurry but I didn't want to disturb her too much and I'll figure out a better way to get a picture since my camera flash isn't working I have to use a flashlight and take a picture, it's not easy! But these are for sure a big batch off straw eggs, and they are very grey. I'm not sure how soon I need to be ready for her to drop them;



So now I'm starting to get the supplies, I have a 29 gallon I'll use for the outer heating tank and I'm going to find 4 or 5 large jars to put inside it and I'll run an air pump with 4 lines into them. I'm not even going to start a transition tank until I've got zoea through a couple stages. I'll update with pics as things start to come together. Next up, order brine shrimp eggs!


Now my first 2 questions!

1. How long do you think it'll be before she drops the eggs?

2. Does anyone know if adding predatory mites (H.Miles) to counter my crabs mites will be bad for my straws eggs? I'm a bit worried they may try to eat the eggs.

I've done H.miles in the past with no issues but this month is a bit different!!

Oh my i have no idea! Wolf? Wode? Rocky?

Oh my I don't think anyone's ever had it happen before, so we'll have to try to fill in the blanks.
My best guess is that it'd be shorter then PPs, probably closer to violas or aussies since they're exotic species. Nat? Curlz? How long before yours dropped?

About a month in between the first female dropping till the next..... Hope this helps!

Is that the same female that will drop eggs 1 month after dropping?

If so, wow maybe those were straw babies in my dish then and now she's got more eggs.

Thanks!

No i dont know how long any of them were carrying sorry, it was 1 month after the first female that the second one did then a couple weeks & the other one. If they are from the same species they tend to be pretty close together. Sometimes they dump them in the sand, make sure you listen for them

Awesome about the straw... Congrats Kuza, starting to wonder why it was taking your crabs so long
Sorry to hear about your dump in the freshwater, I hope next time you succeed!
Can't wait to see the straw babies (zoeas...)

Giving them a virtual kiss so they can hatch faster!

Sounds great Kuza!!

Sounds like a plan! Can' wait for updates.

Sorry, more questions!!! I don't want to ruin your thread so maybe I should ask this in my thread but you both read this one a lot

How did both of you do the water changes without getting all the zoea mixed in?

And did either of you the "freshly hatched brine shrimp in a jar (Ocean nutrition)" or just use baby brine shrimp that you grew yourselves?? And how did you remove the older shrimp if they didn't get eaten? Maybe a long cooking baster?

Thanks again!

Clear hose with stocking/pantyhose over the end & i used a torch to attract them away from where i was syphoning. I have a plastic eye dropper i chopped the tip off the end so i could easily suck up zoea.
I hatched my own brine shrimp, although my successful batch did not eat any live food.

Did they eat any food?

And thanks again for all the help! I wouldn't be able to do this on my own with my limited available time

variabilis zoea don't eat but yours will be different id say. They ate lots when they turned to megalopa.
No probs

Cheering you on! Can't wait for the new arrivals!!

megalopa is the stage where they take on shells, right? or is it before?