Jumbo behaving oddly

[mool]

I have two XL-to-Jumbo crabs that molted this summer. This in and of itself is an oddity as they have both previously molted in the winter only. They each took about 8 weeks from disappearing to reappearing freshly molted--which is fairly quick for a larger crab.

The one in question seems healthy and is certainly active. He changed shells yesterday into a shell with about a 2" opening and it is clearly too big for him. He left a shell with about a 1.5" opening, which was a little snug.

This evening, he was upside down in the calcium dish, with about 75% of him hanging out of the shell. When I walked up to the tank, he righted himself, with some effort, and scampered away. About 10-15 minutes later he was doing it again. What the heck is he doing?

This time, I made sure his old shell was rinsed and put it at the top of the shell shop, prominently featured. I also turned the lights off and went to bed. I didn't look for him this morning.

I've had this crab for a long time and I don't want anything to be wrong with him. I hope he's okay.

No other crabs were nearby when he was doing his thing in the calcium dish. He was so far out of he shell, I could see his entire body.

[mool]

He changed back into his old shell and has been behaving normally since. I think maybe the new shell did not quite fit the way he wanted so he was making adjustments before giving up on it. Just my guess...

[LadyJinglyJones]

The crabbies in my care are much smaller, but one, Luis, tried on a couple of too big/oddly heavy shells before selecting the OBVIOUS best choice - a green turbo sized (theoretically) perfectly for him, that I kept suggesting by putting near where he likes to hide.... anyway, I found him upside-down in two of the shells he tried.

I think its just the crab being stubborn about the shell bein' wrong. Maybe they like some aspect of it that humans wouldn't think of... like when I buy a pair of shoes because they're cute, even though they don't really fit well. Who knows, maybe its the aesthetics! I noticed that both the shells Luis got up-ended by were a-symetrical. I wondered if he likes the idea of that kind of shell but hasn't the physical strength to pull it off. Like, maybe one of his earliest shells was like that, but, being smaller, was much lighter? Who knows.

Anywho... so glad your Jumbo is back to his regularly upright self!

[mool]

It did seem to be purposeful behavior, but he made himself so vulnerable. I'm glad to know that other crabs have done something similar. He changed into a 3rd shell last night--one he or my other jumbo has been in before. It is the exact same size and type as his original shell, minus some mods for his eye stalks.

[bbcraft22]

sometimes, you can see that their last pair of legs called the gill cleaners will extend out and clean the near outside of the shell. There is nothing wrong with that. My hermies do it all of the time!