1st artificial incubation and hatch of Geosesarma Dennerle (purple Vampire Crab)

[DR zuum]

Recently I ordered some purple vampire crabs hard to come by, lucked out got Gravid females all dead....lol. The imbeciles couldn't even look and see they were carrying eggs smashed the eggs up inside their flaps catching them for packing I am assuming. I inspected the dead females found one who had 4 eggs unsmashed , could not find anything on artificially incubating them so I created as close as I could the environment inside of the abdominal flap, 100 days, 100 days, 100 days .......of caring for 4 almost microscopic eggs. Today the first one hatched.

 

[DR zuum]

That's the hatching chamber they were moved to today from the incubation chamber. The pictures of the female crab the internal damage done to her flap by the sorry sellers.

 

[The Seraph]

How wonderful! Hopefully they shall be prosperous! Hope you have better luck in future!

 

[DR zuum]

How wonderful! Hopefully they shall be prosperous! Hope you have better luck in future!

They should be being born in my water,and thanks. They seem to have trouble acclimating from their habitats water to indoor. I switched to R.O. Reminerlized with Crystal shrimp R.O. Kh powder, 8.0 is the ph not 7.0 7.5 too low they get lethargic start moving slow die. Good health they are almost as fast and quick as a pokie. Also if anybody gets any from somewhere and they are WC check for parasites immediately and quarantine.

 

[SonsofArachne]

I got some of these from a pet store last year. None of them lasted more than a month.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I knew a fellow who used to sell CB ones. He said the WC ones typically have a 50/50 survival ratio.

 

[SonsofArachne]

I knew a fellow who used to sell CB ones. He said the WC ones typically have a 50/50 survival ratio.

Wish I could find some CB ones. The ones I had were cool little guys, even though they tended to be pet holes. I kept them in a paludarium that I made and I noticed that they would spend most their time on land side, even climbing the live plants I had in there

 

[Introvertebrate]

Yeah, I hear water features are optional for vampire crabs. The fellow I mentioned was keeping them in a dart frog style tank.

 

[dragonfire1577]

Yeah, I hear water features are optional for vampire crabs. The fellow I mentioned was keeping them in a dart frog style tank.

The juveniles require a water feature and even adults usually molt underwater.

 

[Galapoheros]

Cool, so these are freshwater at all stages? I've never jumped into keeping crabs but I've always been interested in freshwater crabs, I like shrimp and crawdads. I have a good book on Texas Crawdads.

 

[velvetundergrowth]

I've always found crabs particularly tricky. I've kept aquatic and terrestrial and neither are something I'd recommend to a beginner. It's a shame about the poor packing but I'll be interested to see the results of the experiment

 

[dragonfire1577]

I've never had success reading Geosesarma tiomanicum offspring without a water source, they would all die. Might depend on species but I will always recommend it.

 

[KevinsWither]

I'm curious who has these crabs for sale?

 

[moricollins]

Dr. Z ! Glad to see you around still. Congratulations on the babies, it sucks that the adults didn't survive

 

[DR zuum]

Ok I'll share what I've learned in the last 5 yrs , WC even Geosesarma tiomanicum probably the strongest of the lot of them mainly die and I have kept or tried to keep 6 of the species I'll list my sources after this to obtain them. Micro fauna is key, without microfauna WC will die they need the bacteria from the microfauna gut for thier own guts , I use three types of microfauna , springtails who are the most prolific and are consumed steadily by the crabs, this has led me to believe they may have high metabolism? Or maybe they just taste good to them? Asellus.sp in the water these microfauna are a good cleaner crew for the paludarium as well, G.tiomanicum is the hardiest in my opinion, and the most easily obtained. Water ph is a key no matter what anybody tells you about a range down to 7.0 keep that at 7.8 to 8.0 alkaline. Temp 75 to high 80s, flowing water is key for long term habitat returned through a drip system from a outside canister filter cascade 1000 turned down is what i use with marineland poly for filtration and carbon the is a ozone feed into the lagoon many of the crabs come in with blackspot rot most people don't know what this is and don't know the crabs are sick, the ozone burns it off them kills it inside them, the crabs go down into the water and bathe in the ozone stream scrubbing their legs and carapace, no more than 80mg for 4 hr periods there is a total of 40 gallons of water in my paludarium exposed and underground smaller amounts of water would require less figure the ratio per gallon. I also keep glolight tetras and a couple other tetra sp. In the lagoon about 6 or so. Starvation, they come in near death sometimes from that as well, parasites internally 30% of the ones I've got had parasites. G Tiomanicum is what is thriving for me, also in perfect health these crabs are very fast and quick , if they are slow and lethargic moving something is wrong with them, crickets small to medium once in a while crab food in a glass dish left in as well, for the fruit veg part, though it takes them a while to start eating it, C.B. G. tiomanicum is the only one I've found C.B. I have a video I'll link it, hey Mori my man good too see you are still out there too brother.

 

[DR zuum]

And dwarf isopods third microfauna , here are the sources the good thing about these sources is they refund readily if the crabs arrive dead, here's a tip if the crab is barely moving and very lethargic in his crawling when it arrives it is dead trust me claim it . And pay them through PayPal only. One is a direct line from China to your door they are not b.s. they are 100% for real you must tell them exactly what you want you can request % male and female, it will cost you a little more . tell them you want the crabs shipped each one to his own plastic bag with a little piece of sponge with some water inside please . Otherwise they will ship them in a sphagum moss coffin. They refund readily no matter how many times they arrive dead very rare species, but that's the rub with them . Chinese connection https://www.myhomenature.com/product-category/animals/freshwater-crabs/ seasonal only right now they only have the larger cardisoma .sp patriot crabs. Stateside http://www.petzonesd.com/purple-vampire-crab/ they have some in stock right now but get your paludarium right before you get them or you're just wasting your time and money regular old aquarium gravel buffered with crushed coral keeps the ph on the money. 3 rd source CB source https://www.azgardens.com G.tiomanicum , and G.sp sandfire vampire crabs. Also I can't stress this enough the they don't need a real water filter part is inaccurate it is, they come from forest with pure fresh running streams the stagnant water method with a water bowl or a water level in the just sitting in the tank is no good for long term got to have a filtered water return use a outside canister filter with a undergravel in the tank sculpt from one end you want 2/3rds of the tank dry land or slight shallow land then a pond/lagoon type open waterway on one end . And I'm sorry but they need that good water source if you intend to keep them long term breed etc.The G.tiomanicum I have in there now are carrying eggs three females two male adult, two females are carrying. So I think they must be grooving just right in that setup.

 

[Arthroverts]

For the ozone, how do you provide that? With an ozone filter or something?
I appreciate your work with this species, let us know how it turns out!

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[KevinsWither]

So they need a bioactive enclosure of sorts?

 

[DR zuum]

So they need a bioactive enclosure of sorts?

On point brother,I'm still fine tuning the living ecosystem/Bioactive enclosure freshwater amphipods are hopefully my next addition to the microfauna. I'm looking at fungus addition as well I.E. mushrooms mycelieum etc. Trying to locate any research into that area now as to their consumption of it.

 

[DR zuum]

Ozonizer, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-Adjustable-Ozonizer-Ozone-O3-generator-Ozotech/312108245459?
You can find cheaper ones but this one goes to 10-150mg is adjustable user friendly cleaning design, same one I have. Every few months use a bristle pipe cleaner open it clean inside of metal ozonation tube , unplug first disconnect leads.
hash=item48ab19e1d3:g:ltcAAOxyrjZRvNTX&redirect=mobile

For the ozone, how do you provide that? With an ozone filter or something?
I appreciate your work with this species, let us know how it turns out!

Thanks,

Arthroverts