Coenobita clypeatus in Martinique

[Kiwi-bht]

Hi
I am sorry if my post is not in the good section but i did not find a section about Coenobitae in natural environement.
here is a link about some pictures of Coenobita clypeatus i have taken in Martinique.
=> http://margouillat.e-monsite.com/pages/ ... -2011.html
i was very lucky because i found a lot of Coenobita clypeatus's larva!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xktkks ... ue_animals

[Xyloart]

Thank you so much for sharing those; I love seeing pictures of them in the wild!

[DragonsFly]

Je suis si jaloux (spelling???) Ack. I want to go to Martinique!

These are great pictures showing the clypeatus in their native habitat. I really like how your goal for your "crabitat" is to reproduce their natural living conditions as closely as possible; that is extremely admirable. Welcome to the board!

[Kiwi-bht]

Thanks you very much!
I am really passionate about land hermit crab, and i want to observe them as if they were in their natural environnemment!

[gpw9167]

WOW, that is amazing. I couldn't imagine that I had to watch were I walked because there are hermit crabs everywhere! You are lucky for sure!

[Kiwi-bht]

It was really great, at some places there were hundreds of hermit crabs!

[wolfnipplechips]

It's a real treat to be able to see them in the wild. Thanks so much for sharing! I wish I could give mine large trees to climb on. Maybe some day.

[Kiwi-bht]

Thanks.
I would like too for the trees, in Martinique i saw hermit crabs to several meters high on the trees!

[DragonsFly]

Want to hear something absolutely insane? I've been taking care of TWO of these guys, which I accidentally acquired and did not even want, for really just a matter of a couple of weeks. For years I've thought about designing a house with an interior courtyard (glass roof, like a sunroom/giant terrarium), pond/fountain in the middle. Now I'm considering how to fill it with a foot deep of sand, and make sure it can be heated/humidified enough so they can just live there. Trees and all. . . Overboard???

[wolfnipplechips]

DragonsFly, I totally want to do the same thing! Though, might cost me a tad bit more since I'm in Alaska. Doubt I could afford to heat such a thing in the winter. I even drew out plans one time for fun...took me three hours.

[wodesorel]

(My French is so rusty at this point that I'm not even going to try. )

Thank you so much for sharing your photos! I've always wanted to learn more about their native habitat and it's very hard to find anything about them on the internet.

Would you mind if I asked a few questions?

What are the day and night time temperatures and humidity levels, and do they change at all throughout the year?

What time of year did you find the babies? Do you know if they have a yearly mating season?

You had said you found the larvae where a lake empties into the ocean. Does that mean they were in brackish water (half-salt, half-fresh)?

Do all the hermit crabs have those same sorts of markings? I've always wondered if their colors show where they came from. When we get them here in the States we have no idea on what island or location they were originally collected. Looking at your photos all the crabs have roughly the same colors and markings, which makes me wonder if the crabs I have that looks similar are from Martinique as well. (And therefore the ones that are different colors come from another island or islands.)

Thank you!

[RedbirdFL]

This was really interesting, Kiwi! Thanks!

[Kiwi-bht]

I have some difficulties to speak about that in english, so i will just try.. I am sorry if it is not comprehensible.
I do not remember exactly of the temperature and hygrometrie, but it was about between 25 and 30°c, and this changed during the course of the day. They were in the most driest part of the island, but in dead leaves the hygrometrie was high.
Yes, they change at all throughout the year, there are humid and driest saisons who determine reproduction seasons of the hermit crabs, but the reproduction seasons also depend of the tidal cycles and others parameters. Generally, Coenobitae reproduce during and just before the humid season. So for Coenobita clypeatus it's during july, august and septembre. I think in captivity it is very important to reproduce similar conditions for obtain reproduction.
i found babies and larvaes (who were at advanced larvae stade) in august, and the larvae were in brackish water, where a brackish water is going on the sea. Regarding to the sorts of markings, there were in Martinique a lot of chromatical differences, and i don't think that can be enable us to determine where they are originally because of sorts of markings are influencing by age, alimentation and others.


If you don't mind (si ça ne dérange pas), i will answer more complet in french, it must be most comprehensible than my bad english:

- Je ne me rappelle plus précisément des températures et de l'hygrométrie.. Mais en général la température était comprise entre 25 et 30°C le jour, et il y avait biensûr quelques variations au cours de la journée. Les Coenobita que j'ai observé en plus grande quantité se trouvait aux alentours de la savane des pétrifications, l'endroit le plus sec de l'île. Mais dans les sous bois et au niveau du sol, dans les biotopes qu'ils occupaient l'hygrométrie était assez élevée.
Oui, les températures varient au cours de l'année, il y a des saisons sèches et des saisons humides qui déterminent ( tout comme d'autres facteurs comme les cycles des marées) les périodes d'accouplements et de pontes. En général les Coenobitae se reproduisent au début de la saison des pluies (saison humide) et durant celle ci, dans le cas de C.clypeatus en juillet/août/septembre. Je pense donc qu'en captivité il est donc primordiale de reproduire des conditions similaires pour espérer obtenir de la reproduction.
J'ai trouvé les bébés et les larves (qui étaient à des stades larvaires assez avancés) en août, dans de l'eau saumâtre, surement plus salée que douce, puisque c'était là où l'étang des salines (saumâtre) se vide dans la mer.
Quant aux couleurs des bernard l'hermite, il existe en Martinique de nombreuses variations chromatiques, mais je ne pense pas qu'elle puissent permettre de déterminer l'origine des Coenobita, car elles dépendent essentiellement de l'âge des individus, de son alimentation..etc.

More infos in french here: http://coenobita.xooit.com/t2024-Coenob ... inique.htm and here: http://coenobita.xooit.com/t1930-Reprod ... m?start=15

[wodesorel]

Your English is excellent! And thank you so much for the information!

[DragonsFly]

Dude, your English is super. I read both your English and your French versions of what you wrote there, and your English was completely comprehensible and conveyed all the information you had in the French version. Especially given your age, I am extremely impressed at both the quality of your English and the quality of your observations. You are without doubt a born naturalist (scientist specializing in how species live within and interact with their environment). If you have made such high-quality observations of these animals at the age of 14, and are already considering the complexities of the system in which they live, including varying temperature and humidity by seasons in order to allow for proper reproduction, I can see you as the E.O. Wilson of hermit crabs when you grow up. (Do you know him? World famous naturalist; his particular area of expertise is ants. If his books have been translated into French, I highly recommend them to you.)