HCA: Hermit Crab Association

A few weeks ago, my almost large crab Ash-Zilla came up from being buried and looked weird and was not moving much. I don't think any of my part gopher E's dug her up or disturbed her since they have all been on the surface for a while and were finding other things to keep them busy. I had no idea what was going on, she went over to the food bowl and ate a little then moved herself over to the water bowls and was not moving, her eyes looked clear. She was scaring the heck out of me, i thought she was dying. I moved her into the iso, when i had her in my hand a noticed that her exo was cracked at the top of each leg, uh oh!!! suddenly it came to me, holy cow she was molting in my hand!!! I gently placed her in the iso, and i took pics of her actual molt. I did place a cocohut over her and she is doing great and is already back in the main tank ruling her kingdom once again!!!!
These pics were taken 1-2 minutes apart.

She makes it look easy! Her colour is gorgeous! Thanks for the amazing pics, and thanks to Ash-zilla for sharing her moult with us!

wow, that's amazing to see! Thanks for sharing!

Wow great pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Very cool! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Wow. That really neat. I love the color

whoa whoa whoa wowness!! that is soo cool i might just save the picts to my computer if thats ok? wow thanks so much for sharing!

very cool any updates?

So cool! I've seen the just before and the just after, but never the actual shedding. Thank you for thinking to take photos. Was she able to get every last bit of her exo off?

Wow, I've always wondered exactly how it looks like. Thanks for sharing! So cool!

Very cool, thank you

That's just kinda creepy, yet cool at the same time...

Thanks guys! I felt like I was invading her privacy when I started taking the pics, like I was a peeping tom or something but….i thought it would be neat to have pictures. She didn’t stay pink long either, these were taken around midnight and by the next morning she had a lot of lavender on her. The pink color immediately after she molted looks like when you peel or pop a blister and you have that raw looking skin underneath and its wet, that’s what she looked like, almost like it would hurt.

Hermycrabitat21- yep, you can save the pics

PinkParrot-I think sometimes the exo does come off in pieces, it maybe when they are having a hard time with it but from what I have read (and now witnessed) it will come off in one piece. They will eat most of it, all of mine usually will leave the pinchers and some leg tips (I come across them in the tank at times)

nibbler125- she’s fine and is back to the main tank. She molted on 8/3/11 and this is her yesterday


wodesorel-

Thank you for thinking to take photos

I’m impressed with myself that I did think to do it!!!LOL! Usually I’m not that quick and would have just watched and then thought about it afterwards!

Was she able to get every last bit of her exo off?

Yes, it came off in one shot, in the last picture you can see a leg tip on the right side that was out of the exo, a minute after that the entire exo was in a heap on the sand.

Wow, that was awesome! Thanks