Science on Tap: Shell-ebrating Mary Akers’ Hermit Crab Breeding Program

    How do you run a land hermit crab breeding endeavor from the mountains of Virginia? That’s what Mary Akers shared on September 26, 2024, at the Rising Silo Brewery-hosted Science on Tap event “Be the Ocean: Getting Hermit Crabs to Land.” Armed with gallons of saltwater, thousands of miniscule baby hermit crabs, and adult hermit crabs as old as 40 years, Akers shared her self-taught journey to becoming an expert in breeding and raising land hermit crabs.

    Akers began by sharing that hermit crabs sold in pet stores have been taken from the wild. These pet stores claim that hermit crabs live about six months, but with people who know how to keep them, these animals can live for many decades, she said. Akers’ work breeding hermit crabs provides a more sustainable alternative and elucidates best practices for caring for the shellfish. She brought a tiny plastic bag holding 50 even tinier shells – the “starter homes” for her baby crabs.

    Akers’ largest crab is almost 40 years old, but hermit crabs are born at an almost microscopic size. When they reach one year old, they are only the size of her fingernail. A female can lay enough eggs for about 10,000 crabs – also called a spawn – but only about 0.1% of them survive past infancy, she explained.

    Perhaps the most difficult part of breeding hermit crabs is replicating the conditions they need to survive. The crabs migrate for miles in the wild, so Akers gives them hamster wheels to expend their energy. The tank she uses to house the aquatic stage of the young crabs is circular, so that she can maintain ocean-like conditions with ever-moving, nutrient-rich water at appropriate temperatures.

    Audience members of all ages were excited to meet the hermit crabs Akers brought. When it came time to ask questions, visitors were curious to know about the crabs’ personalities, their shell preferences, and even the possibility of creating hybrid species. Akers stressed the importance of appreciating and appropriately caring for these animals — they aren’t the easy or “impulse buy” pet that many pet stores market hermit crabs as, she said.

    Thank you to Mary Akers for sharing her story and to Rising Silo Brewery for hosting! If your appetite for learning about hermit crab breeding has been "wetted," you can listen to a Radio Lab interview with Akers at 
https://radiolab.org/podcast/crabs-all-way-down 

and watch a short animated video about her at 

https://youtu.be/rE9zc9Im48U?si=1REPCKt3MqC4Ebuv.

    Science on Tap is a monthly event sponsored and supported by the Center for Communicating Science and by Virginia Tech's chapter of Sigma Xi. Come learn about evolution at our next event, 5:30 p.m. October 24 at Rising Silo. November’s event will be held on the third Thursday of the month, November 21, to accommodate Thanksgiving. It will feature an array of Virginia Tech graduate student research projects.

By Bria Weisz, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant.