HCA: Hermit Crab Association

One of my friend's crabs molted.....the exoskeleton is off.....but she does not seem to have left the shell at all...the exo was just hanging off of her....she is very "new " looking....
Is this safe for her , normal, tell me what you know....
do we need to do anything for it?
she hid behind the water bowl for 2 days with no sign of digging down, even though this crabbie likes digging....
THanks,

They don't leave their shells to molt. They shed the exo while they are still in their shell. Just leave the crab alone so it can harden up! When they shed they are usually squishy. I would ISO the crab and give it some cuttlebone or crushed egg shell for extra calcium. Also, they will eat the exo. Don't take it away from the crab!

I must be confused then.....so why do they dig down????? I thought they did that every time to stay safe til they hardened up? And why do they leave the shell to dig down?
I have been trying to read a lot , but somehow did not catch this.
She does have the crab in ISO and did leave the exo....will tell her to get the cuttlebone from her Mom who has birds as well as crabbies....this is very interesting.
Smiles,

They dig down for many reasons. If they dig down tomolt, they do not leave the shell behind. If they leave the shell, it's not a good sign

Crabs usually dig down to molt. Is the sand the crab is in sandcastle consistency? If its not then they sometimes have a hard time digging w/ out all the sand falling on them! Many crabs surface molt, even though tank conditions are ok. But I have never had a surface molt. They don't leave their shells to molt!! I guess you got confused. They never leave their shells, they just dig down, shell and all and usually have a little tunnle under the sand where they shed their exo, eat it, and then sit and harden up until they dig their way back to the surface. Crabs only shed the hard exo, not their soft grey body. You never see their gray body unless they come out of their shells when they are stressed out or if you catch a glimpse of it during a shell cahnge. Hope this helps a little!!

Nope they don't leave their shells. They just shed the exo and tuck into the shell. If he left the shell, there's a reason. Usually stress,something irritating in the shell,overheating etc

I have never experienced a crab leave its shell and then molt. Occassionally, they will leave their shells post molt (female), but that's rare.

I'm going to move this over to the crab care forum.

THis makes a lot more sense now!
I wondered how they could stand to be so vunerable at such a time....now I understand that it is stress or just shell changing that brings them out.
She had one of her crabs die not long after he got home...he left the shell and she thought he was molting....but I will let her know he was really stressed and that probably led to his death.
The more we understand about this , the better we can care for the crabbies!
This also explains to me what you all are talking about when you say not to bother them when they dig down...because you could collapse the air pocket they have created for themselves.
THanks!

I am curious as to why a hermit would surface molt when proper substrate is suplied for underground molting. Anyone have an answer?

Good question, Xanadu... Legolas was my first molt and he did it in the food dish, his second molt he was buried. However, at the time of the food dish molt, i had sand for a substrate, the second time i had EE.

I read one person say that it may just happen so fast they don't get a chance to dig down.

Interesting .....
my friend said hers that surface molted less than a week ago....just sort of hid behind the water and food dishes....and usually likes digging , but did not even try to for the molt. Maybe it did just hit the crabbie so fast it did not have time or energy to dig down.
She is using play sand for substrate.....they seem to like it much better than the calci sand.
Smiles,

DustAndEchoes wrote:Good question, Xanadu... Legolas was my first molt and he did it in the food dish, his second molt he was buried. However, at the time of the food dish molt, i had sand for a substrate, the second time i had EE.

Ours really seem to prefer the EE for molting. I think every single one of them was buried on the EE side of the tank during our mass molt (which they're still recovering from, tho we've at least seen all of them again now).

The sand side is very popular for "fun" digging though! (as can be seen by the general carnage in there normally - holes, overturned dishes, buried shells, tunnels, crabs waving through "windows" underground, etc). The E especially loves the sand for some reason.

Surface molts are most common with newer crabs who were not able to molt at the petstore. They have delayed molting for so long that they will do it as soon as possible, even if it means not digging down. I currently have two new arrivals who are so pre-molt it's not even funny - their eyes are completely white! I expect that I will be able to witness them shedding the exo within the next few days. One just sits on the surface, and the other sits in a tiny depression that another crab dug for him.

grouchhouse

If the sand is dry, then it can't dig under to molt. It needs to be moist, so it holds shape, so they can make a little "cave" to molt in. I read all the posts and didn't notice if you mentioned if the sand was dry or not. If it was, that could be the reason it surface molted. Make sure the sand is moist for the future and they will most likely go under to molt next time .