Mating And Spawning in the Ocean
When they get to the ocean, after taking a little swim to get some of their moisture back, the male crabs will dig burrows on the shoreline, often fighting with each other for the best spots. They’ll then invite the females over to mate in or around the burrows.
After the migration, the male crabs will pop back to the forest, while females will stay in the ocean for another two weeks to produce eggs. Each female can carry up to 100,000 eggs, which she holds in a brood pouch for those two weeks. Over the course of five or six days during the last quarter phase of the moon, before sunrise, the females will release their eggs into the water.
Tiny larvae will hatch out of the eggs, and the petite hatchlings will make their own journey back to the forest where their parents came from. Crabs can live for more than 12 years, so these younger crabs will make their own migration to the shore around the ages of four to five.
