Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[mlakers]

Today is Day Seven. They are one week old. I'm barely keeping up with everything else in my life, but the larval hermits seem to be doing well. I haven't had time to do daily updates in here(sorry!), but I have been doing my best to keep info going up on my website, at least. If you want to catch up on the past few days, the link is here: http://maryakers.com/inthecrabitat/ There are some pretty decent videos there, too.

[GotButterflies]

Looking great Mary!!! You are doing an awesome job!!! I'm rooting for you!!

[mlakers]

Thank you! I'm hoping yours go great guns!

[GotButterflies]

Thank you! I love your website updates!

[naalide]

Great pictures and videos. My fingers are still crossed!
And thanks for sharing the website! I hope it's OK, that I linked in in our German forum.

By the way: You still have a life beside the larvae? RESPECT!

[mlakers]

Thank you, @naalide! Yes, of course it's fine to link to your German forum. I've been poring over the info on Curlz website and YouTube, so it goes both ways.

I'm at Day Seventeen now.

The larvae seem fine. Minimal losses still. More sheds today but just late bloomers to Stage Four, I think. I'm just barely keeping up, but we're still on track and there's nothing new about their development to report.

I'm starting to put a lot of energy and research into the next stage. If my survival rates stay this good, I am definitely going to need more teeny tiny shells. I do have a bunch, but I need to sort and clean and organize what I have and then figure out how/where to order more. If I get really behind, I may ask for help in researching where to get teeny-tiny-crazy-tiny shells.

I found some larval lightning whelk shells on Etsy and those have arrived, but it was only like 25, and not all will be usable. I've already got some that I picked out of live sand last year, I bought some tiny turbos from Alaska Hermit, and the ones a friend picked out one-by-one for me from a whelk egg casing. The small shells that are sold in Michael's and the Dollar Tree LOOK really small, but those are several sizes too large, actually. I need shells that look approximately like SAND.

I'm also getting concerned about what they will eat once they reach the glaucothoe stage and get claws instead of their little feathery hands. The things I'm using now are great for planktonic larvae, but won't really work for clawed creatures.

I'm thinking I may move my one E that's up over to the big tank and use the 55 as a baby hatchery if I get a ton of megalopa. I've been watching YouTube videos from Curlz about the megalopa stage and trying to plan. Getting nervous and I'm not even there, but I seem to remember that hers came at day 24 for PPs, and that's only a week away.

But I do realize these are all good problems to have.

[GotButterflies]

So exciting!! Have you checked ebay for shells?

[mlakers]

I haven't. I don't use Ebay much....should definitely check though.

[mlakers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pitzYWf8PxM

Day Twenty-one.

Three weeks. If nothing else, I’ve done that. Today was deep-clean day and I had a semi-emergency. Took almost five hours to complete because I realized (after completely wiping clean and drying it) that the left kreisel had sprung a leak. Freshwater was dribbling in. I must have wiped a little too vigorously at the silicone (it was filthy). I was home alone and needed about five hands, but somehow I managed to plug the outside (under water) with one hand, dry the inside completely with a second hand, and silicone the leak with a third hand. Still not sure how I did it. It was one of those emergency out-of-body reactions like lifting a car off of your child.

I let it dry 30 minutes and things looked good, then added water, put a few brine shrimp in, and when they didn’t die added a few zoeae, waited a few more hours then moved half of the remaining over, no issues.

After staring entirely too long into the now-clean water of the other tank, I’m confident saying that we are entering stage five. Next stage is megalopa!! (That’s when they get claws and start looking for shells.) Very excited/worried about that.

Rough population count puts the total at right around 500. Deaths will go up today, because of the stressful water change, but it’s always a balancing act between more dying from NOT changing the water versus more dying from changing it...and the tanks had gotten pretty slimy and gross.




The other source of additional deaths today will be from the difficulty of entering stage five. The picture I’ve included shows one that’s half stuck in his exoskeleton (the pink vertical part is the shed exo, the clear tail behind is the living part). It’s just hanging on, stuck to the complex leg structures. I’m seeing this a lot today—as their bodily structures become more complex, the sheds become more difficult and dangerous. This is one of the reasons I went with reef salt, because it has higher calcium which I thought would help them to have sturdier exos. Did a calcium check, and it's fine, a little on the high side, even, but I'm not going to sweat that.

Now I need to go stream some mindless tv. I’m pushing the limits of my sanity once again, but thank you for taking this trip with me.

[GotButterflies]

Hang in there Mary! I bet that was physically and emotionally draining! You are doing AWESOME!!!

[fandt94]

I love this thread! You are doing awesome!

[mlakers]

Thank you, fandt94!

[mlakers]

Thank you, GB! I'm riddled with doubts today, but such is the hermit crab roller coaster. Ha!

[naalide]

I'm riddled with doubts today, but such is the hermit crab roller coaster. Ha!

Absolutely normal, while breeding crabs.
No life, no nerves,... but if you are successful, it's worth it! Go on!!

[Renroc]

I got my teeny tiny shells from bird shell grit (the stuff they put in bird cages for them to eat to help digest stuff.) they worked well for my Aussie crabs. A magnifying glass and a pin (to clean out the openings) were very very handy.