HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have been trying to figure out why both last August & September, and THIS August & September were MASS MOLT MONTHS! Last August/Sept., I owned 12 PP's. All but TWO were down molting. At the time, I was fairly new to cabbing, so I wondered if I was doing something wrong.

Over the past several weeks, I watched as one-by-one (sometimes two-by-two, or three-by-three!) my crabs started disappearing again...in BOTH tanks.

Even my husband, who really tries to ignore the things entirely, asked the other day, "Honey, why are the crab tanks empty?"

Already frustrated by the lack of activity in my tanks, I replied, "They are NOT empty. They are MOLTING!"

"All at the same time? Why?" He asks. [smilie=banghead.gif]

I wanted to shout that I HAD NO CLUE, but instead I started babbling & said, "Because they live in Florida & they are hiding from the heat, humidity, & hurricanes." (He believed me!)

When I thought about that later, I wondered if I had, in fact, stumbled onto something there with that comment. Most of my crabs are PP's, which are basically Caribbean crabs. August & September are the most unbearably hot & humid months of the year....and they are prone to hurricanes. Could the crabs know this, and pick this time of year to molt & avoid all that?

The last mass molt I had was in January/February, which are the coolest two months of the year in the islands. Hmmmmmm....could it be they avoid those chilly months, too?

Just a theory I had. Just makes sense to me.

That sounds like a good theory. You might be right about them hiding from the heat or the cold.

all 5 of my hermies are down right now.. The 3 PPs went down first about a week or two ago, and the 2 Es went down about a week ago.. So it's not just you.. lol

I think I only have 3 down out of 27.....

I'd read the theory before but that it was spring that was the mass molt time. I know I had a mass molt then.

I'm just finishing up with a mass molt in my PP tank, so there may be something to that theory.

hmmm April to July approx 21 molts - only 4 of them in April
July-Aug approx 26

Sept already has 3

prior to that Jan was heavy but it was pretty even Nov/Dec/Feb

thats not counting the lil brats that you never know what they are doing

My crabs molted last September and they did it again this August/September, so maybe there is something to it. Perhaps it's climate change...not sure.

Someone forgot to tell my guys, which suits me fine.

I have noticed mine acting funny, too... I tried putting special treats in there, but the big guys just took it up to the moss pit with them, so they won't be coming down for a while. The only little one who isn't buried in one place or another had just finished molting when the others went under. It's an interesting observation, Kathy.

Very interesting, 3 of our 4 PPs are molting, so maybe this is true, it does make sense.

My crabs have been acting strange lately too. They almost have been "hybernating" lately and don't even come out to eat or take a drink! I guess that means my crab Blue who's getting too big for her shell won't be changing shells anytime soon. [smilie=banghead.gif]

All my crabs are up, for the first time in months! I have 2 pp's and 4 e's and the last crab that was molting just came up last week. Although the heat/humidity thing could be totally valid b/c almost everyone went down right around the time when our weather turned extremely hot and humid for a couple of weeks and now that it's cooled off everyone is up. The first molt started in Aprilish then everyone was up in late June when we moved (thankfully) then a few weeks into July everyone went back down within a few weeks of eachother and came back up the same way. The last crab that I figured had probably died since he's been down since late July, just came up last week