Reefs.org Forums

[britzles]

Does anyone know any information or some place I can go to about breeding porcelain crabs???

[jhemdal]

Hi,

I don't know of anyone who has bred and raised porcelain crabs. Related to squat lobsters, these filter feeders are difficult to maintain as adults for long periods in aquariums. Combine that fact, with the idea that they have complicated pelagic larval stages seems to mean that rearing them in captivity is probably not something that can be accomplished with the current state of aquarium keeping. Since they don't have a particularily high retail value, it's unlikely that any commercial venture is going to concentrate on trying to "close their life cycle" - rearing them from adult to egg to larva and then to adult.
Probably the best crustacean to try and raise would be the peppermint shrimp. April Kirkendoll has witten a book on this subject:
http://www.lysmatapublishing.com/shrimp.html
I've raised a variety of freshwater and marine fish species, but have never raised any crustaceans except as food like Mysid shrimp, or incidentally like with crayfish and cherry shrimp. We did have a giant Japanese spider crab start to hold eggs, but they were infertile.


Jay Hemdal