Eggs

[LoveTheEarth11]

Just a question, how long after the male and female mate are eggs visible?
Does the female store eggs inside her or does she whip them up when the male shows guarding behaviors?
Just curious, as I am trying to figure out how to tell when my crabs are mating. (If. its a hope)

[Motörcrab]

Pretty eggs should be visible right after mating. The male will hold the female upside down while mating. It is often mistaken for shell jacking. The male fertilizes the eggs as the female releases them from her gonopores on her largest gear legs. They look like two little dots. As they mate she pushes the eggs back into her shell. She keeps them there for about month moving them around every so often.

[orangeinecrab]

Pretty eggs should be visible right after mating. The male will hold the female upside down while mating. It is often mistaken for shell jacking. The male fertilizes the eggs as the female releases them from her gonopores on her largest gear legs. They look like two little dots. As they mate she pushes the eggs back into her shell. She keeps them there for about month moving them around every so often.

Wow, you learn something new everyday! I must admit I didn't know that females release their eggs from their gonopores (I should have realised that though ) and here's me trying to see if my female has eggs and my crabs are still in the guarding phase. I've read so much about the rearing of zoea but I think I need to brush up on mating in hermit crabs.

[LoveTheEarth11]

Pretty eggs should be visible right after mating. The male will hold the female upside down while mating. It is often mistaken for shell jacking. The male fertilizes the eggs as the female releases them from her gonopores on her largest gear legs. They look like two little dots. As they mate she pushes the eggs back into her shell. She keeps them there for about month moving them around every so often.

Never knew hermit crabs were so complexed in mating. . Thank you for clearing that up. I panicked when I mistook my crabs for mating, and when I looked I saw no eggs visible so I was confused. but thanks to you, I now know that when they ACTUALlY mate, I will see eggs directly afterward.



...So once my hermit crabs mate I should see eggs directly after. And then I have a month to prepare for the Zoea spawning. Nice.

[Motörcrab]

Here is a video I managed to get of my strawberries spawning last year. The male Mephistopheles is holding Wendigo upside down in the water to help her release the eggs. Since the eggs hatch the moment they touch water. One crabber believes this could possibly be the first proof that the male assists the female. Mary was even unaware of this!
https://youtu.be/G_cZEgFlm5U

I had another straw, Abby I caught mating with Mephy a few days before Crab Con. Since we were going to see Mary I messaged her to see if she wanted a her. So she made the trek with us to New York. Unfortunately when it was time to release her eggs she seemed lost and confused without the male guidance and dropped the eggs someplace other than the saltwater. This is one of the issues with captive breeding. Sometimes you can save the eggs but you loose a good amount.

Here is a video I got of Mephy showing his dominance over another male trying to mate. Between mid July and late August I saw this happen at least once a week! I only had those two batches of eggs that I'm aware of. To me it seemed to me because the female got disgusted with the fights and didn't want to mate. It actually got to the point I was going to move Mephy into another tank to chill out.
https://youtu.be/ggb3F4E_wyc

I got my straws late July of 2018 so I had them for about a year before I saw the mating. From what I read the males try to coach the female toward the ocean. I did notice Mephy in the salt pool more than usual the days before spawning. The night Wendigo released eggs she was constantly pacing and pacing the tank. She just kept it up all night! I'm assuming that was her journey back to the ocean to release the eggs. I didn't put two and two together until I saw them releasing the eggs.