HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I am knew to the forum, so please excuse me of my question has already been answered. When rearing zoea Is there a reason that no one seems to be using anything other than Artemia? Has anyone tried copepods or rotifers?

I just believe its convenience of baby brine shrimp (BBS) that many successful members tend to use. But also, since brine shrimp is basically a snack that doesnt fight back - as they are very small, while copepods tend to be around a 1mm or larger - that makes them ideal.

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I tried rotifers (and algae as a food source) when I attempted zoea. Honestly, I think it is the ease of brine shrimp coupled with their size and movement. Zoea are known to cannibalise heavily, and the brine shrimp make a good decoy! Brine shrimp are also gut loaded ready to go within a few hours. A rotifer colony can take weeks to get up in numbers and the algae colonies have to constantly be rotated and also take a couple of weeks and a very strong light source.

That said the algae and rotifer colonies were fun, if messy. Air pump and heaters for both left a salt crust over everything nearby. The algae has to come from a live starter and my only option was mail order overnight because of summer temps. Rotifers can be started with a live colony which is quicker, but there are also freeze dried starters. I never used my freeze dried, just had it as a backup.


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Thank you for your responses. When my strawberries finally drop some babies down or me, I think I'm going to experiment with copepods. Does anyone have an estimate of the particle size of prey ingested by the different stages and roughly how many prey a single zoea can eat in a day?

hopefullcrabber wrote:Thank you for your responses. When my strawberries finally drop some babies down or me, I think I'm going to experiment with copepods. Does anyone have an estimate of the particle size of prey ingested by the different stages and roughly how many prey a single zoea can eat in a day?

Whose breeding journals have you read? Curlz is pretty extensive, and you can always ask @Renroc.

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I just fed mine fine grain beta food.


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I'm planning to try copepods and a couple of other things the next time I get a chance. Have you checked out Jehmco.com?