Captive-breeding Hermit crabs

Nice article about the ( clamed ) first breeding of Hermit crabs in the USA .
Because I know several ZooChatters are keeping Hermit crabs I thought it may be of intrest :

The miraculous journey of a captive-bred hermit crab

 

Interesting article, and a major breakthrough in breeding crustaceans.

 

so most of the hermit crabs sold in pet stores are those caught in the wild?, well, I had one once when I was little.

 

Yes thats the sad reality but hopefully more people start to try to breed this ( and a lot of other ) species so wild-caught imports are not necessary anymore.

 

If kept the right way, hermit crabs can also live a long live in captivity ( article about a 40 years old one ) :

The 40-Year-Old Hermit Crab

 

A very good advance. This raises the possibility of one day being able to captive breed the largest hermit crab of them all - the famous coconut or robber crab of the Pacific( they basically grow so large they no longer need shells), with the result that restocking parts of their range where they have been eliminated through over-hunting becomes possible.