male female

[Guest]

I have pairs in each of my crab types. I have noticed that pairs hang together more then with same sex. Since they mate in the ocean do they do sexual antics on land? Even when the pile up there in mixed sex.

[Guest]

They don't actually mate in the ocean, that's just where the fertilized eggs are released once they've gestated and are ready to hatch. The salt water makes the egg casing explode and send the little larvae into the plankton layers. So, yes, they do have little antics on land, that's where all the important stuff takes place. The females only hit the beach to release the product of those antics.

That said, it's extremely rare for hermies to mate in captivity. You need optimal conditions, a big area for them to roam around in, moving salt water, simulated moon conditions (tides/phases), etc. Unless you're living on a beach somewhere and have a large tank for them, they're probably just buddying up. You'll know for certain if your females develop the easy to spot egg sack on the backs of their abdomens. It'll look like a brown feather boa. If they don't grow that, they just enjoy the company of particular crabs of the opposite sex.

[Guest]

I like their antics even if they don't reproduce.

[Dawn]

We had two attempt to mate. They had no simulated anything except a 95 gallon plexiglass tank with play sand, moss pond and climbing cork and grapevines...We have a salt water dish that is deep enough for them to soak in but it was not moving. We had 20 crabs in that tank. It was our biggest purple pincher and a female strawberry who tried it.

We haven't had any attempt to mate again but we expect it might have been the right size (adult age/size) and time of year (molting vs moon phase) or we just got lucky. They didn't produce eggs but we thought for a while we might have. Nothing this year but we moved everyone around since then. It was June of 2005

Hubby saw them come out of their shells in what can only be described as a mating position..several times over several days.