hi ...i found this on wetwebmedia....hope it helps
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hermitreprofaqs.htm
Assistant Research Professor,
University of Hawaii at Manoa
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology,
The Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology
I hope this helps. It does correlate with your findings:
"There is quite a bit of variability among different hermit crabs in their mating behavior, but I'll try to give you some reasonable generalizations. At least the larvae are relatively easy to raise by comparison to most inverts. I've never raised any of the popular aquarium species (like blue- or red-legs), but I've raised several of the local CA species. With one exception, all the hermit crab species with which I am familiar brood their larvae externally (but within the shell) until they complete the nauplius stages (early stage larvae, similar to a baby brine shrimp), this period can vary between about 1 and 12 months, depending on the species. The females then release either zoea or megalopae (just fancy words for more-and-more mature larval stages) which typically feed on phyto- and zooplankton. Depending on the species, this planktonic larval stage can last days to months. Because the youngest stages are brooded within the shell, and because rearing of the later-stage larvae is relatively simple by comparison, hermits are a good choice for an attempt at breeding tank critters at home."
"Hermits have separate sexes with relatively little sexual dimorphism. The best I can offer is that, in general, the males tend to be larger than the females and in some species the chelipeds (claws) are larger on the males. Hermits often have elaborate mating behaviors (displays, shell knocking and such) during which the male will guard the female until she releases the prior brood that she is carrying. Thus, in the aquarium, when people see this, they report a larger hermit "messing" with a smaller one, and suddenly the smaller one sprays out a stream of larvae. Once the brood is released, the female typically molts prior to copulation (which is why the male guards her) and extruding their next brood. During copulation, the male attaches dozens to hundreds of spermatophores (packets of sperm) to the "abdomen" of the female, and eggs are fertilized as the female releases them prior to attachment to the "abdomen." The male then moves on (this "courting" period can take anywhere from several hours to a week or more in some species), and the female then carries a colorful brood of fertilized eggs on her "abdomen" (or more correctly on the pleopods) within the shell for anywhere from several weeks to a year or so, during which time she constantly cleans and ventilates the developing young."
"The larval duration depends on the stage at which the brooded larvae are released. The larvae typically go through something like 1 prezoeal stage, 4 zooeal stages, 1 megalopal stage and a final decapodid stage of development before becoming a tiny "adult" (although this again varies by species). In most species, the prezoea and some variable number of zoeal stages are completed while the mother broods the young, until they are released (usually around 2 mm in length) and the planktonic larvae spend something like 20-90 days as a feeding larvae before molting into the decapodid stage (which is capable of both planktonic and benthic life). During this time the larvae feed on phytoplankton but usually prefer small zooplankters (such as rotifers, ciliates and the larvae of other invertebrates) when they can get them. There are some exceptions in which the larvae are nonfeeding, and spend a relatively short time in the plankton (several days to a week or two), but these cases are relatively rare compared to the number of species that produce the feeding stages, and I don't know of any tropical examples of this off the top of my head. So, if you wanna raise hermits for a reef aquarium, chances are good that you'll have some intermediate- to late stage larvae released by the brooding parent, and will have to feed them until they complete their development...Hope that helps...Rob"
