As I've been planning for setting up my custom crabitat over the next few years and researching every possible situation I could run into with my future shelled friends, a few questions keep popping into my mind as each source inevitably breeches into the topic of attempts to breed hermit crabs in captivity;
What difference, if any, would raising zoea within an already cycled kreisel have on survival rates?
and more importantly to my curiosity;
Why are kreisels so often set up as near sterile environments by intentional breeders when it seems antithetical to the survival of the delicate zoea? Especially when there's such a high risk of dangerous swings in water parameters with each advancement in stage of development and each time feeding them, that could be reduced or even prevented by culturing bacteria before spawning happens.
I realize it's the norm for breeders to do water changes with each feeding session, and I'm by no means suggesting that practice change. But I can't imagine any situation where the parameter buffer created by denitrifying bacteria cultured within a kreisel could harm the raising of zoea; and thus necessitates the kreisel stay as sterile as possible.
I can update if it works! But we do have multiple reef tanks in the house so it’s more the zoea I’d worry about than the system cycling correctly. They can be hard to find methods that actually have good success rates as far as getting to land. Some Indonesian breeders have been utilizing kreisels already. But only seasonally. The most simple fish bowl and air line cup method is proven fairly successful for some. So It’s always good to have a back up method. They don’t always spawn when it’s on your time 