HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Peach is a rescue I got in early January. After getting him home, he buried for a bit, but did not molt. Around early February, he seemed read to molt - drinking a lot, eating a lot, changed into a bigger shells and was digging a lot. A few weeks ago, he dug down and didn't come back up.

Today I saw a hole in the sand, as if a crab had dug out. At the bottom of the hole was Peach's shell, empty. It wasn't full of sand, so I don't think it had been there long. He's a small/medium and I don't think he should be up yet, unless like his fellow rescue Cream, he pulled a super fast molt. (They did not come from ideal conditions.)

I can't see any sign of him anywhere, and I don't want to dig up the whole tank as there are numerous molters. Guess I'll have to play a waiting game

I hate first molts

Since they probably were in bad conditions, when they saw your tank substance, they were probably overjoyed to have a better place to molt.

Found him naked at the front of the tank at 5am. Was moving when I picked him up, I rinsed him off and slipped him into his old shell and he suddenly went very limp and stopped moving. His LP was next to him when found. Not hopefully.

BTW, was extremely tired last night and made a mistake. This was Cream, not Peach. Peach was the other rescue I got with him, who has molted, is too large for his shells and picked a shell fight with Ghost a week or so back.

I am fairly sure that the hole I found the shell in had been dug in, not out i.e. that a crab on the surface dug him up. Peach is the only crab up - the others are molting. I presume Peach attacked him.

Think I will have to ISO Peach until all have molted.

He isn't moving. I just realised that he had actually molted and must have consumed his old exo, but has not hardened up.

I feel quite stupid now, but it is Peach. Due to a serious lack of sleep and stress I kept confusing them. Sorry

I am now very confused as to the cause of this. He doesn't have any visible injuries aside from the dropped pincher (which was fully intact and fine) and still has part of his molt sack - although it is the same colour as his soft tail. If he'd eaten his exo, which he seems to have done, I don't understand why he'd be weak and dropping limbs, or be unable to defend himself against the other crab. I'm still trying to work out if Peach dug up naked, or if the other crab dug him up.

Feeling rather disheartened as I always do when I lose one. Keep thinking they'd be better off with someone else.

I'm sorry. I really don't know how to help with your Peach. But I can relate to your situation with being worried. One of my hermit crabs, Something was out for some exercise, and I forgot about her, this was at about 4, and I didn't realize she was missing until about 7. I was so worried about her till I found her under a bed. Then when I got her out with a backscratcher, I ran her to her tank then dropped her on the table (Only about a foot.) I didn't sleep that much that night, but she's fine now. So I know how you feel.

They know how to stress us out, don't they

Yeah, they know how to throw us a scare, for a brain about the size of a cake crumb :roll:

How is Peach now? Did he make it?

No, Peach didn't make it. What I thought was a molt sack was actually a massive abdominal wound and she ( I found out it was a she after she died) didn't stand a chance.

Oh man, I'm sorry So do you think that another crab fought her for her shell and wounded her in the process?

Cream was the only crab up and not molting when it happened, the only thing that seems likely to me is that Cream attacked her. Cream is having...issues. I posted a thread about it, it's sort of funny http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... highlight=
She doesn't seem to be aggressive any more though