HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have a molter who seems to have gotten through most of the exo.
Problem is, he is just sitting there and has not moved. He still looks light, like he has not hardened, but I think he has. Is it normal for them to just sit there and appear dead or could he be dead? He has a strong odor but I cannot tell yet if it's the death smell. I mean he literally has not even moved a mm in 3 days!?!?

Not sure if I'll be much help with my "1 month rapid exposure" to molting behavior, but I'll offer up what I know.

First...what size is your molter? My little guys went pretty rapid fire, but Sam who's a little bigger had a 3-4 day period where he didn't move at all. Sam's a small/medium crab.

Curly who's a medium/large did the same thing (but it was harder to tell...since he did a "normal" molt instead of a surface molt like Sam).

As for smell...everytime we've had a molt it's a "sour" smell...kind of like something gone bad (not rotten like the death smell).

He is a medium...He does smell like something gone bad, maybe not quite the death smell. I hope he is ok!!! it just seems odd he has not moved any!!

Have you tried spritzing him with a little water? Usually a mist of water will get some sort of reaction out of them.

In my experience the death smell is pretty hard to miss. It stinks badly like fish left out. The molting smell smells very strong to me. Is it possible one of your other crabs is molting and causing the smell?

One of my smallish crabs, Pink Hattie Rainbow likes to spend an enormous amount of time eating her exo, like six weeks. She just sits in there for what seems like forever. After I have assumed she is dead, three more weeks pass and then she starts running around again.

I hope your crab is like mine, and slow and lazy but not dead.

is he under still? Shine a flashlight and see if you get movement.

Wow, barbra! That is a strange crab you have! Make us think they're dead then get up and run around, lol! Mischievous crabs...

Yes, he is under, still no movement at all...with flashlight even...nothing..I can still smell a bad smell around him...but maybe it's not as bad because he is buried?

Amy,

Sounds just like what my straw, Ashley did at her molt! I had a window, watched as she went through exo for several days, and then just sat around! I was like, okay, whatcha doing??? She shed her exo immediatly, eat it really quickly, and I think it was like 3-5 days (can't remeber exactly anymore) before she resurfaced. Give your molter a few more days.