HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have a post in the behavior forum and mentioned that one of my mediums has not molted in the 2 years I've had him and that is bad. Does anyone know how often they should be doing this?

It depends on the size of the crab, their environment, and their diet.

Healthy crabs that are very small will molt very frequently, while the larger crabs may molt only once a year of even less. A medium crab should molt at least once a year, if not a little more.

I would try feeding some calcium-rich foods and coconut or extra virgin olive oil. All types of foods that are high in nutrition can help to induce a molt.

My Smalls molt about once every 2 months...
My Mediums molt about every 4 of 5 months...
My Larges molt about every 8 months....
My Jumbo Molts about Once a Year...

My Smalls stay under ground for 3days to 2 weeks
My Mediums stay under ground for 1 week to 1 month
My Larges stay underground for 2 weeks to 2 months
My Jumbo goes under for 4 months.

So If they are plus or minus a month or so with any of this no worries

Ok. My tank conditions weren't up to par until about a month ago, so hopefully this will cause molting conditions to be better.

Once conditions are up to Parr the molt fest begins. Be ready for bigger and brighter coloured Hermies in the very near future.

Big MaC wrote:My Smalls molt about once every 2 months...
My Mediums molt about every 4 of 5 months...
My Larges molt about every 8 months....
My Jumbo Molts about Once a Year...

My Smalls stay under ground for 3days to 2 weeks
My Mediums stay under ground for 1 week to 1 month
My Larges stay underground for 2 weeks to 2 months
My Jumbo goes under for 4 months.

So If they are plus or minus a month or so with any of this no worries

Actually it depends more on the individual crab, not their size. It'll vary greatly with each crab.

I find that larger crabs do take longer in general than smaller ones but sometimes a small crab can pull back to back molts and be under for a while.

Since I discovered HCP minerals I have had mass molts in both of my tanks.No I have no monetary interest in HCP. LOL.My crabs eat this stuff like crazy ,then they go down and molt.
Kathy

Two years a long time without a molt! Are you sure that he couldn't have snuck a few in at some point? It doesn't take some crabs very long - I've had medium crabs molt in the moss pit and be up and moving around again within a few days.

I haven't noticed any molts with him. He never dug down in the sand, as far as I could tell. He usually never dug on the surface of the sand either. he is the less active of my crabs. I smelled a metallic odor on him yesterday, but he still has not moved. Right now I'm leaning towards the fact that possibly he put of molting too long and he's very stressed.