Hermit Crab Babies
Hermit crabs are exotic pets owned by many around the world. Raising and hatching hermit crabs is a tough task and a lot of breeders try their best only to fail due to lack of understanding of the crab’s lifestyle. In order to hatch and take care of hermit crab babies, it is essential learning all about their breeding habits such as mating and laying eggs.
Mating of the hermit crabs starts when the spermatophore is transferred from the male to the female. During the process, their shells are merged partially. This process is followed by the production of eggs by the female hermit crab. The size of the crab determines the number of eggs produced. Gill appendages are used to deposit the eggs on the pleopods. Eggs hatch after a few months during which they are stored to the left side of the abdomen of the female crabs.
The ideal place for hermit crabs to hatch is in the ocean or at least in the wild. Just before hatching which is after a month, you can find the eggs turning to gray from their brick red colour. Egg clusters will be passed on by the mother to the maxillipeds from the pleopods. Here again, clusters are formed and passed over to the claw tips.
From here, the female hermit crab flings them to the sea. The moment the eggs come into contact with salt water, the hermit crab babies hatch. The hatched zoeas float amidst the plankton. It takes at least six stages spread over two months for a larva to grow into a unique lobster/hermit crab combination called megalopa.
This is the stage when the zoea starts spending time outside the water inside the mollusc shells they find. Land living crabs resurface after the megalopa completes its molting process in the beach sands. The hermit crab babies by now have a lung structure that is suited to breathe in air and they will most probably drown if left in water.
Breeding hermit crabs in captivity is not quite possible as they require the wild ocean conditions where there is abundance of salt water and planktons. In order to successfully breed and raise hermit crab babies, these wild conditions have to be artificially reproduced and for this breeders must study in-depth the hermit crabs breeding patterns and rituals.
Unfortunately, till date no hermit crab babies bred in captivity have survived for more than ten days. With a little more study and research, it may be possible to create the perfect outdoor wild ocean conditions with the help of equipments in order to breed hermit crabs in captivity and raise their young ones.
Hermit crabs are sold all over the world in pet shops. Here you can find both hermit crab babies as well as adults. If you are buying the babies as pets, ensure you take good care of them. You may even have to personally feed them to ensure they withstand captivity and grow into healthy adults.
