Scarlet Reef Crab Babies

[yimmit]

So this was wierd...I'm watching my toadstool leather with a red flashlight after lights out - it had been acting strange. All of a sudden, there is a scarlet reef crab climbing out of its shell next to the coral. Since I watched one of these guys do this and die yesterday, I figured another goner. All of a sudden, a swarm of critters come flooding out of the shell 8O . Since my other crab died, I figured these were some scavenger type critters, until I looked closer and then watched the crab get back into her shell and walk away. I siphoned a bunch into a specimen container and took a few photos. Any ideas on what to do to keep the kidos alive? I have put a couple drops of DT's in there and also got some pods when I siphoned babies. Here's a couple photos.

Tim

 

[investigator1]

I think its a cumella.

 

[yimmit]

Thanks for the lookup! Would a scarlet reef crab carry a cumella brood in its shell? Unless there is a symbiotic relationship going on that I don't know about, these are definitely scarlet reef crab babies. The parent crab is fine, not dead, so .... Also, they are about 2-3 mm long. I'm guessing I need some sort of algae type food since scarlets are mainly vegetarian? Maybe artemia food? Thoughts?


Tim

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
Sounds to me the crab just releasing babies into the water column. It is common for crabs to do this, and I saw my nasty Mithax do this frequently. Don't expect to see these babies to grow up to adults, since they usually get eaten up by fishes and others within hours. This is the life of plankton.

 

[yimmit]

Hi Robin. I have never actually seen this happen before, so I thought it was pretty 8) . I've got about 50 of them in a separate container and am going to try and raise them - might be fun in a sadistic sorta way. Does anyone have any ideas on what try for feeding? Like I said in an earlier post, I'm trying DT's - guessing at this though.

Thanks!!

Tim