Zoolander Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 My largest hermit crab has been spending a lot of time in his shell lately. This evening I looked at the tank to see about 4 legs and I think a claw sitting outside his shell. I thought he was dead but I just looked in there again and he has moved to the sand and is alive. There is a larger shell in there for him but he has not taken it. What just happened? (scratch) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Is it a molt? If the exoskeleton gets too small, the crab will "change clothes" and shed the old exoskeleton. Then it will spend about a day or so hidden in the snail shell so that the new set of larger clothes will harden up. dsoz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoolander Posted March 6, 2008 Author Share Posted March 6, 2008 See below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 how big you need I bet I could fish some out for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoolander Posted March 6, 2008 Author Share Posted March 6, 2008 Ok, I lied. They hide in their shell so well that I totall missed it. Both shells were next to each other as well the exoskeleton making me think a hostile takeover had occurred. That exoskeleton looks more like the hermit crab than I thought it would. To make sure I was right, I flipped over all the shells in the front of the tank and sure enough they all crawled away. So.... it was the exoskeleton, it's just more realistic than I thought it would be. Total noob post, lol. I would definitely be down for a few shells, though. Thanks for all the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 It happens, Glad to see more people from the South area showing on the boards, see ya around soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoolander Posted March 6, 2008 Author Share Posted March 6, 2008 Sounds good, thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defigart Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 My wife was out of town and her Cleaner Shrimp molted. I had the same horrified feeling for about a day, until the Cleaner Shrimp came out of hiding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aqua-ed Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Ha! Sounds like me. I thought I was having a major hermit die off in my tank because I was finding hermit chunks floating around about once or twice a week. I was close to dropping in extra food because I thought they were starving. Then, I saw that despite said chunks, my population of crabs wasn't dropping. Being a smart guy, I put two and two together and realized that the suckers were molting. Ah, the joys of experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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