Author: Mary Akers

  • Day 64, 31, 28.

    🎼Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64….days old?🎼 Apparently, yes, I will, little crabby. One of the land babies was out today, pushing shells and seeds into the pool. Apparently they hatch knowing how to be mischievous. Maybe that one should be Loki. Lots of megalopa doing handstands at…

  • Day(s) 63, 30, 27.

    I did a lot of rearranging today. So many megalopa transitioned this morning I lost count—and there will be at least as many tomorrow—so I needed a new plan for them and an easy way to see when they were taking shells. I cleaned the left kreisel and put all the megalopa I could find…

  • Day 62, 29, and 26.

    Crablandia is out of control. The megalopa in the transition tank are climbing out of the water naked. The stage six zoeae are killing the megalopa in the kreisels as soon as they transition. The babies on land are MIA. And I have no clue what to feed anyone anymore. Some of the bizarre things…

  • Day 61, 28, and 25.

    Here’s a video with info and a quick tour. It’s the fastest and easiest way for me to do this. Mondays are really busy days here and I’m staving off a meltdown today. I really, really, really, REALLY wish I knew what I was doing!!! Gah, some days are just so freaking hard. Everything is always…

  • Day 59, 26, 23.

    I noticed today that a couple of the stage five zoeae aren’t orange like all the others have been, they’re an unusual blue (sort of grey-blue like an uncooked shrimp). In this picture, you can see the blue one above the two shells (center) and an orange one just to the right of the shells…

  • Day 57, 24, 21.

    Both of the land babies are now in black turbo shells so I can’t tell them apart anymore, but both are still happily climbing and eating. Numbers are down somewhat in the kreisels (predation) and a few of the megalopa that I moved to the transition tank are still looking good and strong. Also set…

  • Day 56, 23, and 20.

    I’ve set up the transition tank and moved a few zoeae over just as an experiment. I’m having a weird issue that isn’t currently a huge problem but it does concern me. Lots of the stage five zoeae are transitioning into megalopa, which is good, BUT the other ones that are still at stage five…

  • Day 55, 22, 19.

    Still good. Eating in the food dish—spirulina, dried brine shrimp, dragon fruit powder, and powdered cuttlebone. Still no megalopa in the kreisels, but I feel like tomorrow will be the day that I will see the first one. Just trying to keep ahead of the sheds and the poo. Mostly succeeding. Lots of cannibalism again…

  • Day 54, 21, 18.

    Still plugging along, just hanging out on a rose petal. No megalopa yet in the kreisels. Still a poop-a-palooza party in there. Hopefully we’ll have the first megalopa soon. Got the transition tank cleaned and ready. I keep turning ideas over in my mind for how to streamline this process and make it easier/faster/more efficient…

  • Day 53, 20, and 17.

    And I’m officially beyond exhausted. Kreisels are still good–they are pooping SO MUCH! And it’s multicolored poo, just like adult crabs—influenced by what they are eating. Each poo looks like a little tiny stinger from a bee and so it looks like the water is filled with beard stubble from a man who has a…