HCA: Hermit Crab Association

One of my medium-sized indos was caught during his surface ecdysis. And surprisingly, he chosed to abandon his shell molt outside. This is the indo with 2 BPs. I immediately removed him from the isolation tank for an observation:







He was struggling to free his forward carapace section:



Finally, the carapace & eyes were out, but his right claw and outermost right leg were still stuck in the exoskeleton :







Sadly, today he has deliberately casted his right pincer off - so I have no more indos with 2 BPs

Neat... Weird... and mildly gross. No matter how often I've read it in text books and understand the mechanisms, it's not the same as seeing real pics of it. Diagrams are just so.... Sterile.

And I'm sorry he cast off his pincher.

im sorry! let us know how hes doing!

He's OK until today. He has started consuming his exo - and the new exo is still soft.

Wow! Its so cool, so freaky and...yucky....

Hopefully he regrows his BP......

Cool molt n Congrats (it is a molt, isn't it?)!

WHOA..........

OK....that's kinda cool and gross all at the same time.
But congrats on the molt all the same! [smilie=banana.gif]

richnsuew wrote:OK....that's kinda cool and gross all at the same time.
But congrats on the molt all the same! [smilie=banana.gif]

Kinda reminds me of when I was a kid and had to touch just about anything that I found gross even though it made my skin crawl. lol I, of course, also had to try my best to not shudder or wipe my hand after because all my friends were boys and I had to prove I could take it. :roll:

Wow... congrats on witnessing it, but still it's kinda gross. Sorry it lost its BP. Keep us updated.

Awww, poor guy! Yeah, I have to agree with everyone else!

Even though not pleasant to look at, thank you for sharing this most interesting event with us. Glad to hear he's doing well.