HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I got worried because I haven't seen him in a long time, so I went digging for him. I looked all over and finally found only an empty shell. No sign of Jasper at all, not even bits of exo! I think he died while molting and his body, being all soft, probably just decayed under the soil. I feel so bad! This is the second one I've lost during molting.

I'm so sorry.

Did you try checking all the shells in the tank? Sometimes the smaller ones choose a shell to large for them. I had one recent rescue do this. He came from an overcrowded tank at petsmart. When he withdrew into the shell- there was literally no way to tell that there was even a crab in there.

Yep, I checked every shell, took all the moss out of the moss pit, and carefully went through the substrate. There is no sign of him, just a shell under the substrate. And it was a smaller shell than he was originally in. I've read that they'll sometimes get into a slightly smaller shell just before molting, and that seems to be what he did, as the bigger ones that he normally wore were all above-ground and empty.

I think the substrate was a bit too wet, although I took pains to remove all the excess water and added dry sand to make it less wet. It's a mix of play sand and coconut fiber, probably about a 65/35% mix. Also, as their moss breaks down and starts to decay, I mix it into the soil and add fresh moss to the pit.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!

HE'S ALIVE!

He just dug himself out of the dirt!! I swear, I looked through EVERY INCH of the substrate and couldn't find him. I found only an empty shell, a bit smaller than his normal one, and figured that was all that was left. BUT HE'S ALIVE AFTER ALL!! Well, he could be a zombie crab, I suppose, but I'll take him either way!

I feel kinda stupid now.

Congrats! I'm glad he's okay!

Yay!!!! Maybe he went to a different dimension to molt.

Wow, pretty amazing, but I'm glad to hear that!!!