How Can I Get My Crabs to Have Babies?

[Guest]

Does anyone know how to get hermits to mate and what do the larvae look like? I have a bunch of tiny shells, but I want to get the new crab experience. How do you welcome the new crab, the same way as always?

[Guest]

So far, nobody has been able to make the eggs mature. To help them hatch, dip the mother in salt water when the eggs turn grey. They hatch on contact. But, nobody has ever been able to help them mature. The owner of this awesome site is currently almost there. She has got them to almost maturing. I'm waiting to see if she succeeds!http://www.thecrabbagepatch.com/

[KittyCaller]

I'm just gonna jump in here and clarify a few things. First, the owner of Crabbage Patch is different from the owner of LHC. Both are very nice ladies, however. But it's true, Tammy from Crabbage Patch has been trying to breed hermies for the last few summers. She's gotten the eggs to hatch, but getting the zoea to the land stage has been difficult and so far, unsuccessful. In the wild, female hermies incubate the eggs for a while inside their shells. Then, when the time is right, they head towards the ocean, come to the edge, and fling the eggs into the ocean. (Specifically tidepools, as I understand it) The eggs hatch immediately, and the young begin to grow. This involves several molts before they find a shell and head to land. In captivity, Tammy generally finds a female from her stock who already has eggs. When the eggs are ready, the female deposits them somewhere, and Tammy puts them in an artificial salt water environment. (AKA a marine tank) They hatch and she tries to keep the water chemistry where it belongs, make sure they have enough plankton etc to eat, the temp warm/stable enough etc. As I mentioned before, she hasn't succeeded in this yet. In order for someone to successfully raise zoea to the land stage in hermies, they're going to have to go to an awful amount of expense and have a good amount of knowledge on things like marine tank conditions as well as hermies. Hermies don't usually show signs of mating in captivity. As I said in this post earlier, Tammy usually finds a hermie already carrying eggs.