Breeding Not for the Faint of Heart

You probably love your cute creatures and you don't mind having them in your house. Maybe, you even know one or two things about their lives in the wild. But do you know the breeding process of hermit crabs? Or do you, like some thought in the past, think that hermit crabs grow from the ocean?

Well, they don't. And the process of breeding them in captivity is not for the faint hearted.

A Look into the wild.

Hermit crab breeding in the wild is a spectacular event. After the male and female crabs mate, the female crab rushes to lays its eggs in the sand. After sometime in the sand, the eggs hatch and the baby crabs rush to ocean from where they develop.

Now, all those things cannot be found on land. However, it is possible for you to try it out, though the process usually has got very little chances of success.

Hermit crab breeding: male and female.

For you to breed your hermit crabs, you must first know what the difference between male and female hermit crabs is. Otherwise, you might be having two female crabs and you are expecting them to breed.

A male hermit crab will have his reproductive organs just below the heart. On the other hand, the female hermit crab has her reproductive organs located on the back pair of walking legs, on the first segment.

The hermit crab breeding environment.

Once you know the male and the female hermit crab, you can now go ahead to prepare the breeding environment for them.

The first thing that you need to do in preparing a favorable environment for hermit crab breeding is to set up a salt water tank. Ensure that the water that you use is de-chlorinated. The tank should have the capacity of around ten gallons. This tank will be used to mimic the ocean.

Place the tank outdoors so as to increase the chances of mating.

Get a machine that will create waves for you. Although there is no scientific explanation for this, research shows that having waves in the tank makes hermit crabs to "feel at home." Once they relax, it is then easy for them to behave in the natural way, where the "natural way" includes mating.

After you have created an ocean-like environment for your crabs, the next step entails putting up moonlight bulbs around your tank. However, make sure that you leave some dark area within the pond.

After you have placed the light bulbs and created an environment that is conducive for mating, the next step that you need to take is to place the male and female hermit crabs together. Try to put the male hermit crab in a bright shell. Research shows that male hermit crabs are likely to mate if at all they are in bright shells.

Despite the fact that it is possible to breed hermit crabs in captivity, it is usually very hard for the eggs to hatch. This is because it will be hard for you to come with the best environment to take care of the hermit crab. However, there are chances of success and therefore you must not give up