HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My biggest crab, Hawthorne, went down a couple of days after I bought him. He came from the not-so-best conditions so I was like, "Okay, he's just gonna molt, I just wont see him for a couple of months." He went down on May 10th, then his cave collapsed a couple of days ago. I was prepared to care for him like that for the next little while, but lo and behold, when I came home after being out for a few hours, he was out of his hole and sitting on a pot! He looks a bit paler than before, but I don't see any trace of an exo unless he already ate it.

On top of that, he's a rather big crab. Hawthorne's roughly the size of a ping pong ball so two weeks seems too short a time for him to molt. What I *THINK* might've happened is that the substrate is too wet (which is why it probably collapsed) and he just came up like I saw another poster's crab do and his leg got damaged. What do you guys think?

Check his feet and legs, they can molt very quickly sometimes! (although two weeks sounds like not long enough for a first molt from a large crab ) Check his legs and body for hair, if he did molt, he'll be really hairy, and the ends of his feet will have long sharp 'toenails' that kind of look like a talon at the end of a birds foot. It should also be shiny and black if he did molt.
They are very weird with molting, it's possible that he didn't need to molt at all and was just de-stressing. Although most of the time they will molt right after they arrive because of stress and the time spent in the harvesting/shipping/handling process, he might of gotten through all of that quickly and less stessfully then most crabs. And if he doesn't need to molt, then he will save his energy. He could of just been down there relaxing and getting over what he went through recently
How pale is he? If he's really pale, like light pink or even white-ish, he may of come up too soon! Could you possibly post a picture? If he's too pale, he'll probably need to be isolated and fed ALOT of protien/calcium rich foods.

Okay, just checked him again. Didn't wanna handle him too much right away. He's definitely molted. His legs are all hairy and he has tiny black nails at the end of his legs. As for colour, he's only, like, a shade or two lighter, I'll try to post pics later. Overall he looks healthy to me. How long do crabs take to harden? I wanna give him a bath and stick him back in with my others as soon as possible.

If he walking around and eating and drinking then he's probably ready usually they'll stay under until they've hardened.
Congrats on the successful molt! he'll probably darken up after his next one once he gets some good food in him

http://i.imgur.com/ctEAZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tPK9J.jpg

So the first one is Hawthorne pre molt, and the second is him today. Dunno if it's just me, but he looks brighter instead of paler now that I look at the two pics side by side. Whoops. Then again, I haven't seen him in weeks so I can't remember every last detail. I need bigger shells for him too and those'll be ordered once the Hermit Crab Patch site starts taking orders again.

As for Mr Grumpy Claws, he's scuttling around, he's sleeping, he's eating, he's sitting in the salt bath with occasional digging. He's still a bit soft so we gotta wait a lil' bit longer but he's pretty much his old self again.

Hawthorne looks great to me!
I just re-read, for a ping pong ball sized crabs, a few weeks sounds normal I think he's just fine to go back in.

Update: Gave him a bath to get rid of any lingering molting smell and then put him back in. After a bit of a confrontation with Edmund (Edmund's a bit of a bully anyways), he's settled right in with no problems as of yet. It's awesome having him back, and seeing him with the other crabs, I find it kind of amusing. He's at least twice the size of most of them, except for Mina, my smallest, where he has to be at least triple her size.