Spider Decorator Crab gave birth

[TroyC]

Hey, I'm new to the forum, but I was hoping to get some advice.

I have a 2 month old 29 gallon reef tank with:
-1 Lawnmower Blenny
-1 False Percula
-1 Coral Banded Shrimp
-1 Spider Decorator Crab

One of my first purchases was a Spider Decorator Crab. I have had him for about a month, and last night SHE, rather, decided to give birth to about 100 tiny, larva type creatures with heads, tiny tails and transparent bodies. I can only assume these are baby decorator crabs.

She did this by opening a hatch on the underside her belly (i'm amazed I was actually there to witness it), inside of which just appeared to be tissue. But she would make thrusting motions while opening it, and a ton of these tiny larvaes would come out. She continued this for about 40 minutes.

My questions are these:
- Are these really baby decorator crabs?
- Any suggestions for next steps?
- What can I feed them?

This morning, most of them had dispersed to the tank (hopefully), or maybe just got eaten by the other fish and the shrimp. But in case some had survived, I want to make sure I'm just not leaving them by the wayside. Any expert advise is welcome.

Thanks,

Troy

[Prismaco]

A tank full of crabs...CO tanks...may be the new fad...Hopefuly she didnt. It owuld be a pain the get them all out. Personaly I wouldnt want a ton of crabs every where. Anyways...$0.02



-Paul

[binylee]

Honestly,
Your fish will eat them all up before you can fish them or do anything to them.
People have shrimp, clown fish spawn time to time, but not a lot of success story of raising them.
You can do research on it and see what else you can do.

[CAT]

If you have a refugium and can catch a few, that's probably the safest place for them. Mostly though, they'll be fish food

[Alice]

I've got to agree with the free fish and coral snacks. Even if they manage to survive predation, I'm not sure if they'll find the right type of food to survive. If you can manage to isolate some, you might do a search on The Breeder's Registry for those who've raised peppermint shrimp larvae, that's the only critter I can think of that might be comparable.

Amazing that you got to watch the "birth" though!

Alice