Red Mithrax Crabs spawning (1 Viewer)

[HolyBanana]

Yesterday I was lucky to witness one of my Red Mithrax Crabs spawning little crab larvaes. I saw it expelling these bubbles and then I realized it was baby crabs.
Never seen that before. One more thing to add to my reef experiences.

 

[KarenB]

I got to witness it twice so far with my emerald crabs. Well, one and a half times The first time was just within a month of setting up my tank, and I was mesmerized. I didn't actually get to see the crab releasing them, so I didn't know what they were. I saw all these little "headlights with tails" and I was a little spazzed out. A week later, another crab did it, and I actually got to see. Since then, if they've done it again, I haven't gotten to see, but my peppermints and cleaner shrimps do this on a regular basis, every 11 days for the peppermints, and every 15 days for the cleaners. Cool stuff

 

[Guest]

Have any of them survived?? Have they ever spawned in a refugium??

 

[KarenB]

I've managed to keep the shrimp larvae alive for about 4 days. The last batch, when I did their water change, I think I did them in because I forgot about the temp difference in the water......sigh. I have some ideas on how to do it differently next time so that I wouldn't have to do water changes by keeping them in the fuge in a protected area. I did get to see them grow a little, so that was rewarding