HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi, All four crabs where purchased July, 2005. Henry being the largest has molted for the second time. Sabrina being the second largest has molted once. Nemo and Sabrina the two smallest have never molted. Is there a reason for this? Very confused about molting. Do I leave the EXO in during molting or take it out? Do they get gel legs before or after loosing the EXO? I have read both on the last to questions. Henry just molted in March for the second time. He has one gel leg. Henry is in ISO and seems to be doing well. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

mamawscrabbies wrote:Hi, All four crabs where purchased July, 2005. Henry being the largest has molted for the second time. Sabrina being the second largest has molted once. Nemo and Sabrina the two smallest have never molted. Is there a reason for this? Very confused about molting. Do I leave the EXO in during molting or take it out? Do they get gel legs before or after loosing the EXO? I have read both on the last to questions. Henry just molted in March for the second time. He has one gel leg. Henry is in ISO and seems to be doing well. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

Henry is either molting again or taking a turn for the worse.

Hi, I'll reply here too since you have some questions.

First, definitely leave the EXO in, they need to eat it. It contains what they need to grow/harden a new exo. Second, I'm by no means criticising you...I didn't even know that they molted less than a year ago!

From what I've seen here, a gel limb is usually a good indicator that they are going to molt soon.

Is Henry moving at all in ISO? You could put a piece of paper, or food near one of his pinchers. If it grabs it, then that is definitely not EXO.

I'm sure some others will come along with further advice, and I hope Henry pulls through for you!

Thank you for your input cranlsn. I do not take input as criticizing, after all I did ask. Yes Henry is moving up close to the shell. I am in shock, but do believe at this time Henry is molting again. Henry molted in Sept 05 leaving behind an EXO, again in March 06 leaving behind an EXO .... this is why I am confused. At this time Henry appears to be pushing off the EXO ( I hope). I will keep posting ...... Has any one had a crab molt so much?

Good to hear he's still moving. If you look up a few threads by Crabber, I know she's had a few back to back molts. She might be able to share some advice.

Good Luck with Henry and I'll keep my fingers crossed for him!

Hey there mamawscrabbies,

Certainly sounds like Henry is molting to me!

I've had many crabs pull back to back molts on me. Of my current crew of 21 (I'd quit crab keeping for a while and started up again), I've had 4 of them now molt two times since I purchased them in January, two of them with only about a month between molts, and I suspect (although can't confrim) that my mircos were doing multipal molts too fast for me to know for sure and be able to document them. Just about eveyone has molted already or are molting now. That's a lot of gosh darn molting going on in 5 months! They never seem to stop.

It's a compliment to your conditions. As you probably know they have the amazing ability to hold off on molting when the conditions are not optimal. What your guys are doing, especially if they came from bad conditions, are probably playing catch up, they could have been months in the wild since their last molt naturally, so they may have needed to when they went to a supplier, then stayed there a month or two, the could have been at a petstore for months (I frequent them enough I see crabs there for FOREVER, one Petco still has crabs in Xmas shells) and so missed other natural molting oppertunities.

How small are your smalls? Are you SURE they haven't pulled a quick molt on you? Teenies sometimes only take a week. I am such a dork I actually keep a journal of who I see on any given day, otherwise I might not know someone was molting because I wouldn't relize how long since I'd seen them last. It could just be they'd been at a supplier and petstore less time and don't need to play that catch up.

You mentioned a couple of things I'm a little confused by. You mentioned Henry had a jell limb, which to me would mean he'd been missing a limb. This might explain why he'd want to molt agian so soon, to correct the missing limb. May be your thinking of and seeing a molt sac??? Also, you said he left his exo, do you mean he didn't finish it all, or he didn't eat any of it?

Don't worry, molting can be confusing no matter how long you've been at this. Sometimes I see or read things that still don't make sence.

Hi crabber, Thanks for the great info. I guess I should tell my sad story. Some of the poor care was done by me. I purchased 2 crabs for my grandson first of July, with very little info. claws and Digger, digger died within a week. I thought I did it. Digger fell apart, sad but true. So I looked things up and got inadequate info( better than the first tho). Again in July I purchased 4 more crabs. Armed with my new info I did buy a 10gal tank, calci sand and light. I was informed to bathe them once a week, clean the tank once a week. So you see until about 11 days ago I interrupted all molting. I was informed to remove the EXOs, so I did.On my own I did add sea salt to the baths. Mo. is a very cold State at times and I only used the hood light for heat. 2 weeks ago claws went naked and died. In horror I could do nothing, I did clean the shell and put it close by. So you see stupidity on my part. I can't bare to think I am the blame .... but I think I am, my poor babies. NOT ANYMORE THO .... the 10 gal has become the ISO. Complete with play sand, (baked and sprayed with salt water) gages, heaters etc. Henry seemed to like it and went right into molting ... I'm pretty sure that is what he is doing. He went in the hut and did not burrow. I have placed food, water, a handful of calci sand and honey. I promise to never bother a molter again. I purchased a 20 long tank this week and am in process of doing the same with it. Please don't hate me ... teach me. I thank all of you for your great input .... hope to post pics soon

Don't beat yourself up. Pet stores often tout these guys as low maintance pets and don't give good info. Even when a pet owner figures out this is not true, and goes to research they find conflicting, and more bad info out there. I can't speak for everyone, but I've seen enough people brave enough to admit, they started out just like you.

I did! I had two PPs in a Kritter Karrier, calci sand, no gages, no attempt to maintain humidity, I could go on with the list of things I did wrong, but I'd rather not. Nobody will hate you! We're all here to return the favor someone paid to us and educate, not judge.

We're crazy about pics here and would love to see Henry's molt pics.

I agree! Don't beat yourself up. You can give them an "exo-supplement" of dried baby shrimp or krill...It's got the same things in it that their exo has...

Most of us walked into being hermit crab owners with little or extremely bad information...the pet stores we thought could tell us how to care for the pets we bought from them were sadly mis=informed too. they perpetuate the ignorance...We're here to put an end to the ignorance but we totally understand where you came from...

Your hermie children are lucky to have you...

maybe part of the reason they faired so well is that they are used to being handled??? Mine used to be handled more and I find less problems with my old regulars than with the newbie adoptees because of that handling history...

Just wanted to keep you posted. Henry died during this molt. I did too little to late. Rest in peace Henry.

I'm so sorry to hear that. We get attached to them so quickly and feel the pain so deeply when they die...

As I said, it's not that you didn't do everything that you were told...you did. But you just weren't told the right things. Next time you'll know.

We have all been there. I wanted to strangle the pet store people when I lost the first ones and finally checked what conditions they needed.

and you should have seen the look on my face when the mall people told me they gave them tap water....We all gravitate from sad to angry and back to sad again over the loss of these little creatures. BUT IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!

Remember that.

I'm sorry you lost him. I agree, please don't feel guilty.