very cool

[tbub1221]

A few months back I purchased a male / female pare of pompom crabs , these beautiful small creatures are elusive to say the least , coming out 1-2 times a week .
Today I saw my female covered in eggs.
How exciting would it be to find a slew of them under my rock work.

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[mc524]

Does your corals tolerate them? They sting or can sting corals with their anemones right?

 

[declanisadog]

Awesome! I got some stuff to trade if anything hatches!

 

[picoreefguy]

oohhhhh thats awesome id love one if you get them to survive and grow. good luck

 

[tbub1221]

Sure if I could raise them id give em all away.
Aaron at nemos 2 told me about catching baby shrimp in filter floss before the skimmer get them , so I started running floss again in an attempt to catch them , because I think my wrasse will make lunch of them .

Edit:

MC524;911617 wrote: Does your corals tolerate them? They sting or can sting corals with their anemones right?

In theory I suppose they could , but there tiny crabs she is 1/2" with tiny nems about 1/4-1/8 the size of small aiptasia .
Further more I fave never seen either male or female more than 3 inches from the sand bed and always only on the rocks .
If you have never seen one feed its very cool.
After they catch food on the nem they hold it in there smaller back claws and scrub each tiny tentacle off one at a time and then they start boxing again

 

[tbub1221]

Update ..
Just saw lady crab for the first time in several days wile spying on my DT with a flashlight (she seems even moreso reclusive than usual) She is still carrying her eggs and they have began to change , there easier to identify each individual egg now and appear to be more translucent with the pigment being more inner , so I'm keeping fingers crossed and educating myself on there needs as baby's .

If I can find her out during the day hours I'll get an update photo .

 

[tbub1221]

That is so cool!!!! I have a mated pair of peppermint shrimp that I am fairly certain she is with eggs. I doubt any of the babys will survive as I have a wrasse tank!!![/QUOTE

I have a wrasse as well , him and my pj cardinal are the pod eatinest fish iv owned , I hatch bbs occasionally as a treat so I'm not counting on much , but from all I learned of raising them is the larva (zoea) are released from atop the rock work in current and swim quite well so my guys will just pick them off .
I'm watching them in the water column and running filter floss I'm changing daily .
Im going to raise em up in a hospital tank on baby brine shrimp apparently it gets tricky about day 17 as that's when a lot die in captivity .

 

[pcmc3]

Yea my cleaner shrimp have release babes about three times this month and pjs and malnarus wrasse love them sadly