North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores husbandry staff recently collected a total of six Horseshoe Crab hatchlings of varying sizes from nearby tidal areas. 
 
Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs lay eggs 2,000 to 30,000 eggs, which hatch approximately 2 weeks later.  Hatchlings stay in tidal areas for about a year before traveling into deeper areas of the ocean.
 
Despite their name, horseshoe crabs are actually more closely related to spiders than crabs.
 
These hatchlings will undergo a month-long quarantine before being included in the aquarium's invertebrate touch tanks.