Just caught my crabs "in the act"

[CrazyCrab12]

I moved out of my parent's house in september and I now have a bigger tank. 160 gallons upgrade from the crabs' old 45 gallon. As the crabs come up from molting one at a time, my parents call me to come pick them up. So far only two crabs have surfaced. A male and a female. They've been in the new tank together for about a month now at my new place and I just caught them "woohooing". The female doesn't have any eggs though. And I thought they were supposed to breed in summer lol. It is possible that they think its summer I guess since the male has lived in captivity at least twelve years and the female at least 3 years so maybe they got mixed up since they haven't seen the sun in so long. I'll keep y'all updated. I never expected in my wildest dreams something like this could happen to me.

[JoeHermits]

Most reports of eggs are in the summer, but the breeding season starts in January.

Some crabbers have reported copulation after periods of heavy rainfall. I don’t suppose you’ve had any storms lately?

I am excited for you, though. Would you try to raise the zoea if your crab hatched some eggs?


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[CrazyCrab12]

I honestly have no clue if we've had rain lately because I haven't stepped out of my apartment in over two weeks due to COVID-19. I would do my best to raise any zoea but I'd have to do my best with the supplies I have on hand. My town is a hot spot for the virus and I have asthma so I really shouldn't be going outside. Luckily I have lots of fish supplies tucked away from previous bettas.

[CrazyCrab12]

I am curious why I've had these crabs together for so long and yet they've only chosen to breed in the new, bigger tank. I want to know what I changed that made it suddenly a good habitat to breed in.

[JoeHermits]

We’re still trying to figure out what entices them to breed. They may be encouraged by the newly gained space.

It’s also possible they’ve done this before without anyone seeing.


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[JoeHermits]

Of course, many egg reports come from larger colonies, which is interesting considering your two are alone right now (underground individuals notwithstanding).


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[Motörcrab]

I have been wondering why some mate and others don't. I am really wondering if larger tanks 55 and larger tanks and bigger play a role in mating. It could even be how many crabs are in the tank. I really don't think there is much documentation at all on this. Any bit of information can be helpful. Especially heat and humidity levels.

Off the top of my head I know Mary Akers has, I believe a 120 and a 90. Gotbutterflies has a 120 and I believe a 75 each with toppers. I had mating in the 75 gallon last year like crazy. I'm trying to think back what other members have had eggs and the size of their tanks.

From what I have been reading here and other places there are more and more reports every year of people seeing crabs with eggs. It's solid evidence that our care techniques may not be perfect, but are definitely moving in the right direction.

[mlakers]

My current theory about why we're seeing so many more breeding crabs (especially PPs), is because of the addition of deeper pools, and also (perhaps more importantly) the addition of hamster wheels and saucers. PPs migrate to spawn (possibly also to find a mate, though I don't know if that's been proven). Mine show SO MUCH activity on the wheels prior to spawning. The exercise is good for them, definitely, but I think it also helps to activate some instinct to migrate/mate/spawn. People were seeing eggs before they had wheels in their tanks, but (anecdotally) I have noted a definite increase since more people have been adding wheels.