Arrow head crab

[ryrazzer]

Hi all. I have an arrow head crab which i think might be carrying eggs. It has a small pouch underneath its body. Eariler on i saw it had the pouch right open and was picking at it with its claws. I think i could see what appeared to be tiny eggs.
Just wondered if anyone knew if this was the case and what are the chances of the eggs hatching.

CHeers

 

[mogurnda]

All crabs have a reduced abdomen they hold underneath their thorax, and it needs to be cleaned periodically. If the crab mated before it got into your tank, it could be carrying eggs.

If it is really carrying eggs, the chances of them hatching are very high. Because the larvae are planktonic and will get eaten by the other livestock and destroyed by the pumps, the chances of them surviving are nil.

 

[mysis]

Unless you have another tank you can put it and and use air stones to power the water, even a bucket could work, thats what i did for my shrimp.

 

[mogurnda]

Unless you have another tank you can put it and and use air stones to power the water, even a bucket could work, thats what i did for my shrimp.

Are you saying you reared shrimp larvae in a bucket? That would be quite an accomplishment.

 

[fish addict]

I hatched and raised brine shrimp in an empty 10g without any equipment. I just wanted to see if they would grow, and they did for about a month (made good live food for my fishes to chase).

I think that it might be possible to raise the crabs in seperate container.

 

[mysis]

Yes, they are called glass shrimp at the LFS, i reared the larvae in a bucket about 10 litres, and i did 80% water changes each day and had various macro algae in the tank to denitrify the water which helped a bit, but it is mainly the water changes that stop nitrates. i just used the shrimps for food though they are like 50c each at lfs.