Is this what I think it is?!?! Edit: Yep, babies!

[Zekera]

I was in hobby lobby yesterday, and found a nice supply of small shells.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/umboniums-160846/

[Jamescfjr]

I found some shells as well, I'll post a few links.

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=1

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=1

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=2

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=2

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=3
^ Really promising

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=4


Good luck with the babies! If you plan on breeding your crabs again (and these ones don't survive) it would probably be a really good idea to invest in another tank with a sponge filter.

[critterguy]

Very cool! Nice to see someone giving this an honest try.

Make sure the artemia nauplii are young(<12 hours post hatching is best) and you should also look into getting a liquid supplement to use on the nauplii before feeding(SELCON or similar products meant for seahorses)...which will provide HUFA's. Marine aquarium stores should carry it. Better nutrition will increase larval survival. Of course you need to stay ontop of water quality.

When you get megalopae and they start spending more time on the bottom appropriately sized shells should be given to them to try on...though it is not necessary as they will leave the water without a shell as well. Be creative-a tidepool visit, looking through liverock at a aquarium store, maybe even freshwater snail shells like Malaysian trumpets would work.

I would also take a look at your remaining Coenobita rugosus and try to sex them and set them up in pairs/groups. I take it only the pair in the 70 gallon has bred?

[SojMad]

Its sad that a lot of them have died, but it is an incredible experience. Don't give up hope on the remaining 20-30, you're half way there to having them a month. Sunday will be 2 weeks right? I'm happy the remaining ones are still active, that is a good sign, do they seem like they are growing? You never know, you might have to get a huge tank someday soon because you have 30 more hermit crabs! LOL! Thank you for the updates, I have really enjoyed reading about your experience with the babies.

They became two weeks the day before yesterday (Monday). No, they still seem just as small as they've always been. But I believe they aren't supposed to be especially much larger before they molt into tiny hermit crabs. ^^

I second not giving up yet! When my cory catfish laid eggs, only one out of all the eggs survived! It grew to be regular size. It might just happen with you!

I hope so. ^^

I was in hobby lobby yesterday, and found a nice supply of small shells.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/umboniums-160846/

I found some shells as well, I'll post a few links.

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=1

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=1

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=2

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=2

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=3
^ Really promising

http://www.shellhorizons.com/details.as ... -10&Page=4


Good luck with the babies! If you plan on breeding your crabs again (and these ones don't survive) it would probably be a really good idea to invest in another tank with a sponge filter.

Thank you both for the tips!

Very cool! Nice to see someone giving this an honest try.

Make sure the artemia nauplii are young(<12 hours post hatching is best) and you should also look into getting a liquid supplement to use on the nauplii before feeding(SELCON or similar products meant for seahorses)...which will provide HUFA's. Marine aquarium stores should carry it. Better nutrition will increase larval survival. Of course you need to stay ontop of water quality.

When you get megalopae and they start spending more time on the bottom appropriately sized shells should be given to them to try on...though it is not necessary as they will leave the water without a shell as well. Be creative-a tidepool visit, looking through liverock at a aquarium store, maybe even freshwater snail shells like Malaysian trumpets would work.

I would also take a look at your remaining Coenobita rugosus and try to sex them and set them up in pairs/groups. I take it only the pair in the 70 gallon has bred?

Yes I do. Every day I put just a really tiny amount of Artemia eggs in the water, and they hatch within a few hours. I feed them with the food I also feed the hermit crab babies with = phytoplankton, which is the food that is sold on our pet stores especially for raising Artemia. And I change several deciliters of water every day, to keep the water quality as high as possible.
I have been looking trough the pet stores salt water aquariums, but I haven't found shells that are as tiny as I believe they should be, but I will continue searching of course. ^^

All my hermit crabs are already sexed, that's the first thing I do already in the pet store. It is always funny when the employees get's interested in how it is done. So I know what gender all of them are - though at the moment, I don't have room to get any larger tanks to make some aquariums species specific or anything like that. And yes, it is only the pair in the 70 gallon that has bred. The other ruggies are pretty new, and in the latest tank the C. brevimanus and the two C. rugosus has only lived here for a few weeks, and two of them are still down destressing. But for now, I’m pretty satisfied with just having one pair breeding, since it is a whole lot of work trying to care for the babies. ^^


I have to tell you all that there are only three or four babies still alive. But within less than five hours, they will be sixteen days old.

[Mama Crabs]

Way to go Mama!

[critterguy]

Standard protocol is to hatch artemia in seperate containers and then feed the nauplii after gutloading/soaking in SELCON or similar. Less chance to foul the water that way. Also-most of the studies raised the larvae individually in small containers-not necessary-they did it just to keep track of individuals...but it might be worth a try next time.

How long have you had the current breeding pair of rugosus?It'd be interesting to figure out what is triggering them to breed-if it is anything besides being kept appropriately.

[CrabbyIrene]

I have to tell you all that there are only three or four babies still alive. But within less than five hours, they will be sixteen days old.

Sad that only 3-4 are left but... what an experience you have had, and I believe this is the longest anyone has managed to keep babies alive (without a crazy set up or lab)
I think Tammy & Kirk from The Hermit Crab Patch only had their babies for about 10 days???

[SojMad]

Standard protocol is to hatch artemia in seperate containers and then feed the nauplii after gutloading/soaking in SELCON or similar. Less chance to foul the water that way. Also-most of the studies raised the larvae individually in small containers-not necessary-they did it just to keep track of individuals...but it might be worth a try next time.

How long have you had the current breeding pair of rugosus?It'd be interesting to figure out what is triggering them to breed-if it is anything besides being kept appropriately.

I did hatch them in separate containers from the beginning, but since I am hatching so few every time I finally stopped doing it that way. When I kept the babies in small plastic jars, I changed almost all of the water every day, and only left about 7-8 mm of their old water, so their water was kept as clean as I could keep it. Now the remaining babies are in a plastic container with an air stone, and I change about half of the water every day. Every other day, I do as I did with the plastic jars - I move the babies and most of the water to another container and clean the old container to remove harmful things that makes the water bad - dead babies, excrement, old food, and so on.

I have had the female for about one and a half year, and the male slightly shorter.

Sad that only 3-4 are left but... what an experience you have had, and I believe this is the longest anyone has managed to keep babies alive (without a crazy set up or lab)
I think Tammy & Kirk from The Hermit Crab Patch only had their babies for about 10 days???

Yes, it has been a great experience, definitely. The remaining three are now seventeen days old, but I don't think they will be alive by tomorrow night - though eighteen days aren't that bad. ^^
I know, that's what is written on their homepage - but they MUST have had live babies more than ten days! If they released the babies in an aquarium, it is possible they didn't see the babies as good as I am doing. After ten days, most of the babies weren't swimming as much as they did the first days.

[natch1]

if my crabs ever have babies i know what to do. my teacher has a cycled 20 gallon salt water tank with only 5 marine hermits and some colral and mangrove shutes i am sure heck be interested in the crab first i would take out the filter only use bubels and feed little algea and squished freeze dried plankton and see if they can deal with that until i can finish searching up how long it takes for tem to grow

[Guest]

I think they r babies

[Rocky]

I think they r babies

They are hun the 8 pages of chat confirm it, SojMad has videos on youtube to wtih mating-eggs-babies its really cool wolfnipplechips as well