HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Okay, I made a huge dumb mistake yesterday. I'm blaming lack of sleep. I had gotten a couple of large turbos from Dae when I was visiting and I was putting them in the tank and moving shells around, taking some out and putting some new ones in in hopes of inspiring a shell changing party. As they usually do, some of the shells were buried. I pulled them up and put them in the pile. Later that day I noticed one of them had moved. I turned it over and inside was a very, very pale PP. (Note that no alarm bells rung at this time) I just assumed he was a recent molter (and he WAS, like an hour!).

All day he sat where I had put him back down. I kept an eye on him and then, in the middle of the night it hit me. He had been molting down there! Duh! So I got up at 4am, ran downstairs and turned on the light. He immediately came out of his shell and stared at me like "You idiot!" Seriously, he just sat there staring at me, even when I reached in and started digging around the hole where I dug all the shells out and sure enough, most of an exo down there.

So I widened the hole, put him in there with his exo and put a little hut over the top with some moss blocking the door from the other crabs.


Poor thing!

I guess you owe him a shrimp tail, a spirilina/honey treat or a silverside as an apology.


Sending good crabby vibes for your molter... keep us updated on how he does.

I dug up a molter once... and ended up loosing him.

Well you are certainly not the first to have done it. I accidently dug up poor Junior during BOTH of his molts! :roll: Thank goodness that he is a tolerant crab, and apparently the molt disturbances haven't bothered in the least. He is still as healthy & social as ever.

I am not telling you not to worry, but I have dug up a number of crabs in my day, usually while doing a deep clean. All have survived it but the ruggies. If I dig up a rug, it seems to be a death sentence for them.

Keep us posted on his condition. I have a feeling (if he is a PP) that he will be just fine!

I have also dug up two molters. I think we'd be hard pressed to find a crabber who hasn't done it at least once. Both my guys were PP's and both are alive and kicking and doing extremely well now. Let us know how he's doing!

I accidentally dug up LoveBug and Towely when they were molting. I just put them with their exo in ISO and covered them with moss. They are came out of ISO two day's ago. It is scary though when you are digging and then look down to realize you have disturbed a molt. Good luck with the molt.

Ah, we all do it--sometimes be accident, sometimes out of necessity, like when deep cleaning.

I dug up one of my favorite ruggies, Fiji, during a recent deep clean who immediately went completely limp and was hanging out of his shell like he was dead. I was heart broken as he was a favorite. I decided to ISO him in a deli container in the main tank anyway just in case since there was no death smell. (I prefer to completely ISO dug up molters rather than risk a chance of them being disturbed by tank mates.) After a day and a half, there was no sign of life and no movement, so I decided he probably had passed. I was still waiting for the 'death smell' though.

A few hours later, I looked at the container and he had molted! He seems to be doing well. It has been about 4 days and he is still recovering and eating the rest of his exo.

He seems to be fine. He's been eating away at his exo so I am very confidant about his prognosis. I too have dug up molters before. With 22 crabs, you are always going to dig some up during a deep clean. I've never lost one that way, but I still felt dumb about it.

LolaGranola wrote:He seems to be fine. He's been eating away at his exo so I am very confidant about his prognosis. I too have dug up molters before. With 22 crabs, you are always going to dig some up during a deep clean. I've never lost one that way, but I still felt dumb about it.

Whew! That's great news! For some reason, Fiji seems to be taking his sweet time about eating his exo. I'm still hopeful he'll make a full recovery tho.

It took my little Blanket 3 day's to eat his exo. It took him 2 to even start eating it.

Yeah, I've seen them take a few days to even get started!

I hope your little guy continues to recover well! I've dug up crabs for a deep clean and I hate doing it, my hand shakes. They seem to do okay though.