Porcelain Crab reproduction

elegance coral · #1 12/27/2007, 07:37 PM

I have a pair of Porcelain crabs that hitched a ride into my reef at some point. Now the female is releasing lots and lots of larvae. Have they ever been successfully breed in captivity?

elegance coral · #2 12/28/2007, 07:48 AM

Anybody?

boomsticks · #3 12/28/2007, 10:39 AM

Not unless you have a seperate tank with no flow or suction. I have had my pep shrimp reproduce numerous times and I have seen one live. The other ten thousand or so was eaten or death by filtration.

Snowboarda42 · #4 12/28/2007, 10:53 AM

get a breeder net and put it in the tank, suck up as much larvae as you can with a turkey baster and put them in the breeder net.

I think you'll need to feed them rotifiers/phyto since they're filter feeders

Travis L. Stevens · #5 12/28/2007, 12:09 PM

It's probable that one could raise them, but the difficulty level is most likely outstanding. These larvae remain in the water column for an undetermined amount of time before settling and morphing in to an adult form. From there their diet will change to the adults. While they are in larval form, their diet will widely vary from various phytoplankton to smaller zooplankton. I suggest reading up on how crabs and other crustaceans reproduce and grow, and then read through this thread to see what you would be getting in to and what would be involved in attempting to raise them. In short, it would take extreme dedication not for the feint of heart.

Lysmata amboinensis larva
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=846955

elegance coral · #6 12/29/2007, 09:21 AM

Thanks everyone.

Travis, thanks for the link. It's a long thread but I'm sure it will help.