My crab is in labor...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:25 pm

Did I mention how beautiful Ocean is?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:16 pm

Maybe so few people have established groups of hermit crabs and pay attention to them-ionno. But it seems this is hardly ever reported.Tank size might have something to do with it. It may also be the case that eggs/larvae go unnoticed...As for raising the larvae-their are many articles on the subject. Here is what I would do-and what worked for the scientists who have raised several species for developmental studies.(I'd love to get a gravid crab to try with)Individual cups/containers of SW at about 25 degrees celcius-changed daily(you'd probably want to maintain a SW tank to get mature seawater from-but mixing fresh seawater might work as well). Feed freshly hatched artemia nauplii-younger than 12 hrs old at harvested time daily(as many as the zoea will eat). Artemia should be supplemented with SELCON or a similar source of crucial nutrients such as Omega 3 fatty acids...this has been shown to increase survival of reared Birgus latro.When zoea transform into megalopae stage and begin walking around cups.containers can be sloped and a sandy beach added to allow crabs to leave water and burrow into wet sand as pleased. Appropriate sized shells should be offered at this point(a trip to a tidepool, picking through petstore liverock, maybe even freshwater snails like malaysian trumpet snails-should do). For Coenobita clypeatus they lost the larvae at this point-but if I remember correctly this attempt was done many years ago and it may relate to inadequate nutrition. Birgus latro rearing has been worked out pretty well. Researchers had success with C. compressus also-with young crabs with and without shells burrowing into wet sand after crawling out of the petri dishes. Survival of course was higher with those that had been provided shells.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:54 pm

quote:Originally posted by TwoC.Anne:Did I mention how beautiful Ocean is? Thanks Carrie - I somehow missed your post the other day. Ocean is my darkest female; I'll pass the compliment along to her. critterguy - are you a member of any other crab forums? You should dupe this post in other ones if you are, it's very interesting and thanks for the input. I simply don't have the resources to pull this off but I am sure other crabbers do. It is something you would have to be on top of at all times too; we went away for the weekend and I found two (decaying) piles of eggs in the sand when we returned. The eggs smell pretty ripe when they are decomposing so it's a smell hard to miss though with Eco-Earth, they might more readily be absorbed or not smell as offensive as with playsand.

Frostfire · Post by **Frostfire** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:01 am

When I get my 55 gallon maybe I'll invest in some bigger pps from Tammy. My grandparents have been to every continent and go to Florida all the time, so I could try to get them to take the eggs if I get some... IDK, I have that urge to be known as, "the first crabber to breed a hermit crab" but that's not going to happen. I would love to help out whoever needs it by giving information from my tank if mine ever lay eggs, and help research. Hmm...I would also be overjoyed to be known as, "one of the first crabbers to own a captive bred hermit crab" if anyone is interested