Breeding Journal, Species: Paguristes cadenati (Red-Legged Hermit)

General
Species:  Paguristes cadenati (Red-Legged Hermit)
Social Structure:  Unknown
Size of Individuals:  Unknown
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  Unknown

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  5ft 100G reef
Substrate Details: 
Filtration Details:  LR, skimmer and Bio-pellets
Water Changes:  10% every 2 weeks
Water Temperature:  26-27 ^oC
Lighting:  150W Halide x2
Lighting Cycle:  11am-9.30pm
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Typical, fairly heavily, stocked reef.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 
Spawn Time of Day: 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details: 
Egg Size: 
Egg Color: 
Egg Count: 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  04th May 2011
Hatch Time of Day:  2300
# Days after Spawn:  Unknown
Larvae Description:  Quite large black eyes (in comparison to boxing shrimp fry anyway which are the only other inverts I have experience of), mostly transparent, noticeably red in places, also a noticeable "fan" tail. I have some pics somewhere and will add at a later date


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  25 ^oC
Size of Larval Tank: 15L           
Substrate Details:  bare
Other Tank Decor:  Gentle aeration  
Filtration Details:  Water changes (20% every 2 or 3 days)
Lighting:  LED desk lamp
Lighting Cycle:  24hrs, but raise it up a bit at night so it shines across the bucket rather than down into it
Water Changes:  20% every 2-3 days

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotifers and NHBS
Feeding Schedule:  Rotifers for the first 3 days, start on NHBS on day 4

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 15th May 2011               
Days after Hatch:  11 days
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  25 ^oC 
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  Small 500ml pots (6 fry per pot) - for now anyway, just so I can monitor them closely. Once they find a shell about 1cm in size I'll move them to a proper tank. 
Substrate Details:  Fine gravel containing as many tiny shells as I can find
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details:  None, rely on water changes (not even aerated)
Lighting:  led desk lamp
Lighting Cycle: 1000-2200               
Water Changes:  50% daily
Size at Transfer:  2mm
Age at Transfer:  14 days

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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I have raised one solitary hermit in the past, it was by accident as I collected boxing shrimp fry and the hermits released on the same night. After about a fortnight I noticed some of the "shrimp" had settled out and were struggling to walk along the bottom of their tub, when I was down to one remaining "shrimp" it occurred to me it may benefit from having some gravel to walk on I put a bit in and was surprised to see almost instantly crawl into a tiny shell in the gravel. Once it got into a shell it was very easy to raise, it was quite good at scavenging frozen and pellet food and found new shells easily (wasn't so easy for me to sift through gravel looking for tiny shells though ).
 
I have a few pics and vids which I'll add links to soon but I thought I'd start a journal as I have recently collected about 100 more fry, I think they are all hermits this time, should know for sure this time next week. I have tried twice in recent months to raise hermits again once with copepods as a first food and once with nhbs as a first food and on both occasions I had 90% losses in 3 days, I have read they can be raised without rots but I can't seem to do so - there is a possibility that I had collected shrimp fry both times mind. I'm hoping I can keep a better log here of this attempt, just hope they are actually hermit fry this time, they should be as the shrimp aren't due to release for a few days

Just checked in on them now and they have all gone through a pretty large metamorphosis, so that they now have a very noticeable pair of pincers, they are also swimming forward rather than backwards now. I expect they'll settle out of the water column over the next few days and they'll start looking for shells then.
 
Numbers wise I think there's around 40 left now, about 90% made it through the first week but I've been losing about 10 a day for the past few days. Judging by the sole one I've raised before it should be fairly easy to raise them from here, or at least once they settle out and start finding shells, at the moment I'm still feeding Brineshrimp but once they move into shells I think they'll be able to scavenge for frozen/pellet foods.
 
I have taken a few pics along the way and will post some soon.

Very cool!

Congratulations, can't wait to see the pics!

Here's some of the photo's from last time out, starting from day1:
 

 
Day14 (I think):

 
Shortly after day 14 (probably day 16-17)

And a couple of vids, this first one is incredibly boring but it shows just how small it is even though it was about 2 months old at that point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRicOcwLOV0

 
This is a better one, for size reference the coin he's sat on is a 5 pence piece (it's the smallest coin we have over here, not much more than 1cm in diameter) I'd estimate the shell he's in as being no more than 3mm long 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jsQ466Zg4M

 
Thanks for your interest, I'll post again later with an update to this current batch

More of the same really but these are the pics I've taken this time (at least I know these are definitely hermits and not boxing shrimp)

 
This is how they look today (from day 11) by day 13 most now look like this with five or six still to change.
 
 
Today I have had a fair few more losses, perhaps they need to find shells straight away? The more developed ones do seam to struggle to walk on the bare bottom too, seams to me that they remain fairly nimble for 2 or 3 days after this change then stop swimming and start bumbling along the bottom. Anyway I have collected 18 and put them in 3 groups of 6 in small white pots where I can keep track of any more losses and also should make it easier to see if any move into shells (which i have added to the pots), I still have maybe 15 left in the original tub some of which haven't changed yet, I've also added some shells in there but it'll be hard to keep track of them in there.

I find it amazing that this species turned out to be so "easy" - great news for the future of captive-bred cleanup crews!

I had heard that they were pretty easy. I had always meant to try them, but I haven't kept any since I started my latest tank.
 
Not to downplay your accomplishment at all, Rod. This is really cool. Congratulations!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Those pics are really cool thanks for sharing!

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Thanks for your interest everyone. Doesn't look too good today though, most of the ones I moved over yesterday seam to be lying listless on the bottom, not sure if any have found a shell yet. I wonder if it'd be better to put lots of shells in the larval tub from day one next time - with the development time being so short I don't think keeping water quality up would be a problem.
 
Anyway still have 15 or so going in the original bucket, and maybe some of the ones I moved yesterday will find a home soon and pull through.

I bet it's a pain to find shells small enough. That's crazy!

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Yeah finding shells was horrible, sifted through coral gravel for hours, and also a member of my local reef club did the same for me. Still I don't have many, a lot of the smallest shells are all blocked up and useless too. I've recently added a group of dove snails to my reef tank in the hope they'll start breeding and I can maybe harvest some shells from them in the future. At least the shells are re-usable though, think one of this batch has gone into the same shell as the one in the vid above from last time.
 
Looks like only 3 of this batch made it into a shell in the end, definitely think I'll need to have gravel (with shells in) sat in the larval tub from the start, these ones seem to die within 2 days after meta if they haven't found a shell - although I could've fed a better diet than I did.