one of my emerald crabs has eggs, what do I do?

[crazyguy34834]

I descovered that one of the emerald crabs I ordered has eggs and I want to give them the best chances of surviving. How do I make the crab comfertable and hatch/raise the young crabs when it comes time? I am excited that I might be able to do this.

 

[mwp]

Remove the crab to a separate tank with no filtration, only perhaps an airstone...when the crabs "hatch" they probably would go into the water column. Then return your female crab to the original tank. Add phyto, rotifers, maybe baby brine shrimp (depending on the size of the baby crabs) and hope for the best. If you're serious about trying to raise them, pick up the "How to Raise and Train your Peppermint Shrimp" book...granted that's a primer for peppermint shrimp, but could give you an idea of things to *try* - I just don't know if anyone's even bothered with emerald crabs...

Matt

 

[Galilean]

I got emerald crabs to settle one time completely on accident in a 90 gal reef. When the crab is ready to release the eggs it will climb to a high point in the tank with fast flow. For me this happend just before the lights went out in the evening. Then the crab "throws" the larvae up into the water column. Mine went immediately over the overflow and into the sump. Since I have no mechanical filters they lived down there for a while...I think it was over a month before I noticed there were tiny emerald crabs crawling over the caulerpa. The sump was filled with grape and taxifolia and was on a reverse daylight timer. That's all I know. Eventually none of the little crabs grew up. They would get to about 1 cm across and no more.