Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[mlakers]

Day 26. You can see how much darker the eggs are. I really think it has to happen tonight. All three gravid females are super restless. I'm going to stay up as late as I can, in case someone drops on the sand and I can scoop them up, but I can't do another all-nighter. Had a nasty migraine this morning. I'm way too obsessed over this. I'd hate to have gotten this far only to miss my chance by a few hours, but I'm not sure what else I can do.

[mlakers]

I honestly think it's harder for crabs in captivity. I mean, if you are compelled to spawn in the ocean, in the wild you only have to get close, then the next wave that washes in decides for you. In my little pool, they really have to want it.

[mlakers]

WE HAVE BABIES!! Thousands of them. I can't believe they did it!! Yay, for my girls.

I finally gave up at midnight and went to bed thinking I had missed another chance. Then this morning, woo hoo! So this picture is officially DAY ONE. Yeah, baby.

[daws409]

That's awesome!!! Congrats!!!

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[Giner13]

Aaaahhhhh!!!!!that's so exciting!!!!!!
I feel like we should have a baby shower haha


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[mjjluver]

wowww! congrats!

[mlakers]

Got a cool macro shot. You can see their eyes! <3

[GotButterflies]

WOO HOO!!!!! Super Excited for you!!!!! Do you know which one? Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us!!!

[mlakers]

So far I've only confirmed for sure who it wasn't. It wasn't Nala. She still has eggs. Miriam is up now, but slept hard all day and I haven't seen Artemis at all. Think I glimpsed her shell way back in the corner where they have total privacy from my prying eyes, though.

So my best guess until I get a good look is that Miriam and Artemis are the ones who spawned. It's roughly a scajillion zoea, just sayin. I now have five quart Mason jars with a bunch of zoea swimming around. I've put some videos up at my Instagram account if anyone wants to follow. akers7670. It's too hard to figure out how to post them here. But if I can sort it out, I will definitely post them.

[mlakers]

See if this link works. https://youtu.be/w36mR6JV7UI

I took this with a fisheye lens that clips onto my iPhone. I added some structure for them to hide among and eventually practice grabbing onto. Even in the open ocean, there are things like floating seaweed and these are great micro habitats for larvae and small fry. Just seemed to make sense to give them something other than the sides of a slick glass jar.

[Giner13]

Got a cool macro shot. You can see their eyes! <3

Aaahhh I love this shot!!!!


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[aussieJJDude]

Curious, have you noticed them sticking/grabbing onto objects, I thought they were mostly 'drifters' until later zoea stages... I swear that Nat or something commented that ornaments were redundant...
So interested in your findings.

[mlakers]

Not grabbing yet. They flick their tails a lot, moving quite similar to mosquito larvae, if you've ever seen what they look like when swimming. They do seem to rest on the plants, though, just sort of settling there for a bit before flick-swimming off again. Probably not a necessary part of the setup.

[GotButterflies]

Awesome


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[C_fiesta]

So cool! Following you on IG too, it's so fun to watch!

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