Hermit babies!

[Eliz]

I just turned off my pump to feed my tank and saw a small thing swimming in the water. After a few seconds I saw my hermit crab lift its shell up and hundreds of babies started coming out!!! Needless to say the shrimp started going crazy! Can I save any of these guys are they just going to be a meal? :(

[Eliz]

Ok I am about to turn my pump back on! I hate to kill these poor things.

[ionredline0260]

Seeing as how your tank is a cube I don't think you have a refuge ( if you did you could've stuck them in there) . I would turn the pump back on and hope for them to go and hide.

[jer77]

Wow! Thats pretty cool. What kind of hermit is she?

[Eliz]

Red legged! It was a very cool thing to see it from the beginning to the end.

[Paintbug]

they dont have a high survival rate most the time. they are either eaten, or removed by the filtration, the pumps however dont usually bother them to much. being so small they usually pass through the impeller.

[Canarygirl]

What do they look like when they're tiny? I found a very small hermit in my tank that I didn't used to have, complete with very small shell. Are they born with some kind of shell and they grow out of it and start the hermit life?

[bertoni]

Hermit crabs don't develop shells. The larvae need food to make it to metamorphosis, I expect, so they're not going to be easy to raise. Best to think of them as a snack for the tank.