Post
by mlakers » Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:11 pm
Day Two:
The double kreisel is working well. The hardest part about it is going to be keeping it clean. I fed three times today, small amounts, but they could (and should) have been smaller amounts even. Overfeeding is a problem I have to keep in check. Even if it seems like super small amounts, the larvae are super small, too. And they do find the food, so I just need to ease off.
I fed Marine Snow, Nannochloropsis, and decapsulated baby brine shrimp. I also had some freshly hatched Artemia and squirted a dropperful of those guys in. I changed the water twice, once in the morning and once before bed. Each kreisel holds 2 1/2 gallons and I changed out 1/2 gallon each time, so a 20% water change twice today. I may need to up that amount as the days pass, but it was still pretty clean today.
One of my females dropped her eggs in the freshwater pool. That was a sad and putrid mess, thousands of dead, stinky zoeae. I had to empty and clean out the whole pool and it's a pretty large one. I think that clueless crab was Lola. She was the one who spawned on the sand near the freshwater pool last year. Oddly enough, Kermit--my alpha male who mated with most or all of the females--had been weirdly guarding Lola (even though they had mated a month ago) and keeping her away from the freshwater pool for three days. Now I think maybe he was trying to make sure she didn't spawn there. So odd.
Artemis still has eggs and they are super dark, so I'm hoping she spawns tonight. I'm pretty sure Garbo does, too, just based on behavior, so I will have some hard choices to make. I definitely know that I want as many of Artemis's babies to have a chance as possible. She's a super social, friendly crab who comes to the sound of my voice and takes food from my hand. If you're trying to breed captive hermits, it makes sense to select for the traits that make for a better pet than a wild animal.
I will definitely be following your progress here! Best of luck!!
