Mating Emerald Crabs...

[mike731]

Yesterday I was looking in my tank and noticed that one of my Emerald crabs had mounted the other, the bottom one had its shell open which I thought was very provocotive and wondered why they werent in the cave. Anyways, were they mating and should I expect some baby crabs anytime soon?
Also I have noticed that my scarlet hermits are either dying or molting...sounds kinda wierd but everything i read says that they will molt a clear exoskeleton. However this is the second one that has molted a red exoskeleton and stayed next to it and just hid in its shell. Later that night I found him running around my tank with no shell on his back, then he ran back to his shell. Kind of odd behavior, maybe I need to get some new shells for them?

 

[nick76]

Originally Posted by mike731
Yesterday I was looking in my tank and noticed that one of my Emerald crabs had mounted the other, the bottom one had its shell open which I thought was very provocotive and wondered why they werent in the cave. Anyways, were they mating and should I expect some baby crabs anytime soon?
Also I have noticed that my scarlet hermits are either dying or molting...sounds kinda wierd but everything i read says that they will molt a clear exoskeleton. However this is the second one that has molted a red exoskeleton and stayed next to it and just hid in its shell. Later that night I found him running around my tank with no shell on his back, then he ran back to his shell. Kind of odd behavior, maybe I need to get some new shells for them?
Chance of survival is very minimal and by that I mean 0.
I would get some larger shells for your crabs, when they molt they do grow in size.

 

[dinogeorge]

I would tell you to throw cold water on them, because it works with dogs, but I guess that won't work on crabs.

I think Nick76 is dead on. If they hatched they'll get sucked up into your filter, or eaten by something esle. But good luck anyway. It would be really neat to have some little crabletts running around.

 

[trey the salt]

If you had a really low flow Refugium could a crab babies survive?

 

[saltycrab]

I don't know that what the other guy said is true. I had three emeralds in my tank originally. I've seen one on two occasions open its shell and put red eggs into the rocks. I have around 5 or six of these guys now and some are small so some babies made it. One only has one claw lol.

 

[dinogeorge]

Originally Posted by SaltyCrab
I have around 5 or six of these guys now and some are small so some babies made it.

Well, this is cool news. At least some of them survived for SaltyCrab. My understanding is that they lay their eggs in a current and allow them to drift as some other crabs do, but if you can actually see where she places her eggs, I would take a hose and suck them into a bucket. Then pour them into your refugium. They would have a much better chance of growing in there than in your tank, IMO. Please keep us posted. This could really be neat if it works. Best of luck man.

 

[mike731]

yeah I will have to get a refugium set up...I am new to the salt aquarium world so I'll keep you guys posted on any changes, thanks again!

 

[saltycrab]

The other thing one of my emeralds does is move from my live rock onto my filter intake and cleans the intake of any buildup.