fiddler crab breeding

blazingazn

blazingazn

AC Members
Oct 2, 2005
170
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16
Queens, NY
I currently have a 20 gallon fw tank, half water half land setup. I have one male and one female fiddler crab. I know fiddlers need brackish water, but mine have been in there for over a year and are healthy. And i know they're healthy cuz i saw the male and female in copulation, and now the female crab is in berry. i can see a mass of small black eggs being held under her sternum. i've looked every where on the net and know that there's a 99.99% the young zoea wont survive. but i just wanted to know if anyone else has had this experience? i just wanna see wat other's have done to try to hatch and keep the zoea. this is a rare event for anyone im sure and i just wanted to share this with everyone. its pretty cool!
 
From what I can tell, after the eggs hatch, they are released into the water column and float in a planton-like stage for several weeks, before they have their first molt and are actually able to hold onto something and start eating and growing. I think it would be really difficult for anything to come of it. Your best bet would probably be to remove the female into a separate container until you see the eggs have hatched, then put her back in the tank and just run an airstone in the container with the eggs. I have no idea what they would eat, maybe throw in some gravel from an established tank.
 
I would suspect that they might need brackish or marine conditions to develop. I don't know anything about crabs - but if they adults are often considered brackish it's likely the larva won't make it in fresh. Even some species of freshwater shrimp require brackish water to develop.

Try reading up on raising amano shrimp - might at least give you some ideas. If your crabs keep making eggs, you may get multiple chances to try.
 
From what I've read, fiddlers are a PITA (at best) as far as captive breeding goes. Even getting eggs is a challenge, depends on water, lighting, lunar cycles etc etc. It just gets tougher from there.
 
probably some infusoria might give more of a chance, but brackish water would be necessary
 
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