Islandoftiki Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 This morning as I'm on my way out the door, I look at my tank as usual. Everything looks great except the poor lifeless body of my new pom pom crab laying on sand. I was kinda bummed out but had to get to work, so I quickly removed him from the tank so the water wouldn't get fouled. Ran a quick test strip to make sure there weren't any water quality issues--a quick check revealed no serious problems. For the first hour of my work day, I was kinda bummed, but then I started thinking that I hadn't examined the body very well, and just last week, one of my hermit crabs fooled me into thinking he was dead only to find it was just a molt. I come home this evening hoping it was what I suspected, and there hiding under the rocks was my healthy and freshly molted pom pom crab! You would think I wouldn't get fooled by this after having kept freshwater shrimp for almost a year. I'm no newbie to finding molts in the aquarium, but boy do these crab molts look like a dead crab. Shrimp molts are usually clear-ish and pretty obvious. Happily, I was fooled again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewey McLovit Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Just wait until it molted on the rock in a 'normal' state! You will look forever trying to see if the dusters are moving! It's amazing how they can complete remove themselves without any damage to the discarded shell. Congrats on it still being alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 No kidding. The shell was fully in tact and surprisingly vibrantly colored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Same with my Sally lightfoot crabs, the whole body is complete, cant believe how they get out totally in tact. I always have to go looking whenever I find one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRENT Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Islandoftiki, That's awesome. Some of these crabs are amazing how they can get out of that shell. My SL has freaked me out a few times here is a picture of his shell still in contact and he's long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 I was lucky enough to watch our peppermint shrimp molt a while back. It was hanging on a rock and the molt stayed on there. Very weird to watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 My emerald crab did the same thing to me two weeks ago. We even had a little funeral for her and then a week later there she was just hanging out on her favorite rock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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