Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp.

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shannpeach
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Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:07 AM
Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system

General
Species:  Clibanarius sp.
Social Structure:  Group of 20-30 in a 50gallon
Size of Individuals:  various, some about a quarter inch up to nearly an inch
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  Peridocially as I feel I need more clean up crew, starting about June 2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  50 gallons
Substrate Details:  Between 2 and 3 inches of aragonite sand
Filtration Details:  Skimmer, live rock, live sand, biopellets
Water Changes:  about 10% every 1 to 2 weeks
Water Temperature:  76-78 degrees F
Lighting:  T5 HO
Lighting Cycle:  lights on ~6 am, off ~8 or 9pm
Other Tank Inhabitants:  A. ocellaris trio,Synchiropus stellatus pair, Escenius bicolor, Pseudocheilinus hexataenia, red Mithraculus sculptus, various snails (cerith, turbo, etc)

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Formula one and two flake, spectrum pellets, ova, PE mysis, Hikari mysis, frozen brine, live brine, blackworms, Limpits mash...
Feeding Schedule:  At least once a day, usually more depending on my schedule

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

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  8.15.2012
Hatch Time of Day:  After lights out
# Days after Spawn:  Unknown
Larvae Description:  Less than 2mm


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  76-80, essentially "room temp" of my house right now
Size of Larval Tank:  Spherical fish bowl, maybe 3 gallons total
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  none, water movement provided by rigid airline tubing at a slow bubble
Lighting:  CF bulb about 2 feet above bowl, light diffused by a sheet of paper sitting on eggcrate
Lighting Cycle:  ~14 hours on, 10 off
Water Changes:  infrequent, maybe once a week.  Should do more...

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Rotifers and tisbe, T-Iso and Tet, occasional BBS 
Feeding Schedule:  Every couple days

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details

Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

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



You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

<message edited by shannpeach on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 12:14 PM>

shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: [Insert Species Name Here] - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:11 AM
I wasn't intending to breed these guys so I never really kept track of how many hermits I was adding, when, and what kinds. This attempt is going to be sort of hodge-podge but we will see.
 
Here we are at Day 1, the morning after the hatch.  Didn't even really know what I was dealing with so I didn't drop in any food until the evening.  I put them in a 2 gallon gray bucket with an airline and some rotifers, tisbe and T-Iso while I started to hatch out some bbs.


 
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shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibinarius sp. - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 11:22 AM
Day 2: Added NHBBS, but they seem to be WAY too big for the hermit larva to eat.
Day 3: Moved them to a 10 gallon tank.  I added about a gallon of new (aged) saltwater, tetraselmis, rotifers and tisbe.
Day 4: Looked at them with a flashlight.  Still there.
Day 5: Pulled a few to look at under the inverted microscope at work (I actually prefer my microscope at home and look at them nearly every day, but I am having computer issues and can't load my imaging software...so I can't take any pictures)


At this point, I decided that I should probably throw a heater in there...so I did that last night (Day 5) and have been slowly warming the tank up (its probably been sitting at about 72ish degrees F). I also got my hands on a very nifty fish bowl that I might move them to. Its probably two or three gallons and just a sphere with a base--much better for water flow since right now they tend to hang out in the corners.  I may do that later this afternoon (Day 6 today)
 
I am trying to learn the names of all the parts, and to recognize zoea stages but its been slow going.
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shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibinarius sp. - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 11:32 AM

A tail shot (telson?) from Day 5. Forgot to put it in the last post.
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EasterEggs
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibinarius sp. - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 4:46 PM
Great photos!  I used to regularly catch hermit crab larvae in my snagger when I was trying to catch Orchid Dottyback larvae. 
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 9:48 AM
Day 7:


 
I have not been very committed to these guys.  They mainly sit in a 2-3 gallon fish bowl, about halfway filled up.  I throw in tisbe and rots every once in awhile, live T-Iso or Tet, and sometimes BBS when I have some hatching.
 
Day 9:
Changed out about 75% of the water to reduce the rotifer population.  There are only like 20 of these guys left (out of the 50 or so that got transferred to the fishbowl from the 10 gallon tank), added some Tet
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shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 10:04 AM
Day 11:



 
The telson looks a bit different to me but I'm not sure if that means its moved out of the first zoeal stage or not.
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shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 10:07 AM
The eyes also seem more...bulgy for lack of a better word. Or maybe the better word would be "stalked" like I read in one of the hermit crab papers I came across. 

WestOhooligan
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 11:14 AM
Forgive my ignorance, but how long until they reach settlement?

shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 11:39 AM
I'm not really sure.  I think in some of the threads I read about these, it seemed like a month or so. The few papers I have read are more about describing each stage and don't really say how long it took for each stage.  I have started to collect tiny little shells, and took some microscope images with the inverted scope (it has a scale bar) that I will try to post.  I'm not sure if they are going to be too small or too big.  I feel like my clibanarius larvae are smaller than what I have come across in threads and in papers :/  Still a long way from settlement I would guess though, and unless I step it up, chances are I won't have any make it.

shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:43 PM
I'm resurrecting this thread since I caught some hermit larvae of unknown species. The are likely blue legs, but I know there are a couple hermits of a different species in a tank plumbed to this system, so I don't want to rule out the other crab. I think they other hermits are C. diguetti or something. I will try to remember to look it up tomorrow.

In any case, here are some pics:



I put them in an inverted 3L bottle that has a section cut out and replaced with mesh to allow for water exchange. The bottle is clamped in the broodstock tank for now (about 350-400 gallons total volume) and I gave then some nhbbs. They went all day without food today since I didn't realize I had caught them. I have them moving with a steady bubble using rigid airline tubing.

shannpeach
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Re:Breeding Journal, Species: Clibanarius sp. - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 3:31 PM
This larval tank got knocked over by a house guest...now I wait to start over...