HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Junior's been terrorizing a smaller crab all afternoon, and roaming frantically around the tank when he couldn't get near it--which we now know is a "her"! After trying to diagnose his behavior (shell fight? dominance? the other crab is just in his way?) and shooing him off a couple of times, I searched the HCA forums and youtube for pictures or video to help me confirm his intentions. As if on cue, minutes after watching a mating video at All Things Crabby, we saw it all unfold in a corner of our 65g. I recorded about 40 minutes, here are two short clips (these are unlisted videos so you can only access them via these links) (sorry about the music, can't figure out how to mute audio):

Mating
https://youtu.be/0lrFQ_cmyJY

All done
https://youtu.be/2EQNU7wA8Es

Junior's been guarding her so zealously that I'm a little concerned he may hurt her. She zips around the tank and he lumbers after her, it's almost comical. He's so much bigger that his walking legs are like a cage around her. In the next video, he pulled her off the cholla she was climbing. Later she escaped to the corner guard only to lose her grip, somersault to the ground and scramble into a hole where he caught up with her. Is it normal for the female to be constantly trying to get away?

https://youtu.be/ZjkYOHCrAl4

The next question is, what's next? I know from past binge-reading of breeding threads that I'm not in a position to attempt raising babies right now, as much as I'd love to...

Great videos! The male typically will guard the female to make sure that no other males mate with her. My female crabs tend to either 1) dig down, or go high into the toppers to get away. They tend to law low until the approx 30 day time frame comes up. A couple of days before they are ready to lay the Zoeae, mine become active walking the wheel or pacing around the tank. When the time is right they lay them in the msw pool


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@GotButterflies - Thanks for the info! She did seem a bit broody, hiding out (in high places) alone for a few days. Incidentally she went into a larger shell the very next day; she wasn't able to withdraw completely--or even halfway!--in her old one. Junior (the male) seemed to have lost interest and stopped shadowing her by the next morning. We're at day 35 and no evidence of spawning. I assume they don't always have eggs?

GotButterflies wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:06 am

Great videos! The male typically will guard the female to make sure that no other males mate with her. My female crabs tend to either 1) dig down, or go high into the toppers to get away. They tend to law low until the approx 30 day time frame comes up. A couple of days before they are ready to lay the Zoeae, mine become active walking the wheel or pacing around the tank. When the time is right they lay them in the msw pool