Random Organism Breeding

[coralboi56]

I am apparently really good at unintentionally breeding things

These are blue leg hermit crab zoea, aka premature blue leg hermit crabs. This is the second crab breeding event that’s happened in my tank. Just wish I could INTENTIONALLY replicate it

 

[EricR]

I am apparently really good at unintentionally breeding things

Me too -- I have 4 kids. (Just kidding)

That's cool -- guess at likelihood of getting them to adulthood, or is that not really the goal?

 

[coralboi56]

Me too -- I have 4 kids. (Just kidding)

That's cool -- guess at likelihood of getting them to adulthood, or is that not really the goal?

Nah it's not the goal. But as a marine bio major and nerd, I would like to know what the heck my tank is doing that makes them replicate lol. The only thing I've noticed is that both spawning events happened at night. Ironically, it might've been the same two crabs. I've had these hermits for a while.

But if some do make it to adulthood, I won't complain. But between my anemones, corals, and fat clowns in a 7 gallon tank... I don't think they stand a chance lol.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The only thing I've noticed is that both spawning events happened at night.

Yeah, lots of critters spawn either at night or shortly before sunrise. For some possible triggers:

you may be able to encourage/induce spawning through heavy, nutritious feeding and/or through some other cue (from what I've seen, feeding plenty is pretty much always a good idea if you want spawning):

Some things that can impact/trigger spawning include light schedule, light spectrum and intensity, temperature changes (both rapid - i.e. temperature shock - and slow), moon phases, tides, water conditions (i.e. calm water, stormy water, etc.), salinity, chemical cues, seasons, dessication, flooding, etc. - if you can figure out which cues are important for this species, that would be a great first step toward rearing them. For Lithopoma undosa, they were able to induce spawning using UV treated water and temperature shock,* so those would likely be good places to start your search.

I know for a lot of corals, lighting (both daytime and nighttime lighting) and temperature seem to be the main triggers. That said, there are a number of different triggers that may play a role (I'm not sure for trumpet corals specifically which ones would matter):

"The triggers for spawning involve a variety of environmental signals, including daylight hours, water temperature4,5, wind speed6, moonlight7, tides8,9 and hours after sunset10, with cues operating on increasingly fine temporal scales."*

If you know the triggers and can control them well enough, you may be able to get the corals spawning out of season.

*Source:

Split spawning realigns coral reproduction with optimal environmental windows - Nature Communications

Corals usually undergo single mass spawning events, however, occasionally they split reproductive effort across two months. Here, Foster et al. use 10 years of data to determine the drivers and timing of split spawning, showing that these events realign spawning with optimal environmental...

www.nature.com

Water changes can often trigger spawning for various reasons (different water temps, different water quality, etc.).

Their spawning may also just happen around the female's molt schedules:

Just to add, it could also be pre-spawning behavior - some male hermits will start guarding a female hermit just before she molts because when she molts she can mate, but she's also vulnerable to predation. So, they'll sometimes just follow the female around until she molts, mate with them, then go back to business as usual.

If anyone reading is interested in trying to raise the larvae:

Breeding hermit crabs

Looking to start breeding hermit crabs, but have no clue what to do, does anyone have any experience with this?

www.reef2reef.com