Are These Eggs???

[dowtish]

So my porcelain crab was sitting on the edge of a rock, and what looked like a part of it's abdomen or apron shell was open. And on the inside it appeared to look like eggs. It was even sorting them with one of it's hind legs. Does anyone know if these are in fact eggs? And does anyone have info on how they spawn or if they have in an aquarium?

 

[GerritM]

Yes, that´s few eggs. Just few days old.
Here one image of my A. tomentosus with 4 days old eggs.

 

[BEASTIEPENDENT]

Unfortunately You won't get them "big" in an aquarium. You need a special tank with special food to raise crustacaen larvae, sadly it's not quite easy.

 

[dowtish]

do they produce eggs on their own and then have to be fertilized? because i do have another porcelain crab in the tank, but I dont consider them a pair.

 

[BEASTIEPENDENT]

No, usually decapod crustaceans produce eggs after fertilizing/pairing. But females of many true crabs (Brachyura) can store the sperm for one to two years – I would guess this could be possible with Anomura (pseudo crabs, hermits, procelains etc.). So the female might have paired long before it got into Your tank.

 

[dowtish]

Can they keep their eggs even after they molted?

 

[BEASTIEPENDENT]

Brachyurans can't, I think Anomurans can't either. They can keep the sperm and get eggs again, but keeping eggs during the molt is not possible.