surface molt or dead/ dying? dying update lost claw

[YYWW]

Hi staticfurball! I just wanted to add:
Do not bury your guy yourself. Its ok to give him stuff to bury in, though.
Crabs dig down to get cool. Don't worry about it not being completely warm, as long as he can move to a warm spot of he needs to. When in ISO i would just put them where you know it is 80F.
Surface molts are not normal. They can happen, and do not gaurantee death, but crabs instinctually molt underground. Molting on the surface is very dangerous for them. If this keeps happening that will be a red flag.
That you've had him for a year with no molt is not good. Have your other crabs molted?
That he looks fallen apart, are his legs detatched? If so, you can look and see if the fallen leg is hollow. If it is, he is molting, and needs peace and darkness to complete. If not hollow, he is dropping limbs because of stress, illness or injury.



Crabbers unite!!!

[staticfurball]

He's been in isolation for week now with some damp sphagnum moss. He did in fact molt but is deep in the large shell and I cant tell if he lost limbs or not. hes not moving from what I can see but if I put my ear to the shell I can hear faint sound which I assume is his moving ever so slightly. I will continue to leave him alone until he either comes out or I think hes dead but that's hard to tell since I already thought he was dead twice in this whole ordeal. As far as I can tell only one of them has molted unless I am mistaken. Since my first post i have taken out the sand and cleaned it and mixed it with coconut fiber to increase humidity and the depth. I have been trying to increase the heat a bit but need a new heat light to add to the heating pad already installed. I now mist the tank 3-4 times a day instead of 2. About a day after i made these changes one of my crabs went missing (the smallest) I can only assume it's buried itself, although I don't see signs of digging, but I am determined not to shift things around to look for it just in case. The last thing I need is another poor little stressed out crab. the largest one( in a 7/8" shell) is the one I know has molted.

[staticfurball]

just to ease my nerves for the "missing" one, how long does a molt for a tiny crab take? it's in a shell of about 1/2". I don't want to go digging for it but should I expect it to be missing for a couple weeks or longer, just to get an estimate of when i should start to be concerned.

[Andee]

It really depends on the crab, I have had tinies who had been down for more than a month or so, and then three months at a time if they pull a back to back molt. Patience. I would start worrying around 6 months.

[staticfurball]

Oh my goodness, 6 months, I really hope it doesn't stay down that long...this is stressful. Thanks for the info.
Perhaps the new conditions of the tank and new substrate enticed it to molt right away given th it hasn't molted since I have him.

[staticfurball]

Ok, so I peeked in the container with my poor little surface molter to change the food and i got a better look at the discarded exoskeleton shell. It definitely lost it's big claw, the flesh was still in it and getting all gross. it looks like this is the only limb it lost but it's the largest and I imagine the poor bugger is in a bit of shock. it's still not moving but if I gently blow a bit on the shell i see slight movement. keeping my fingers crossed.

[staticfurball]

Ok, so I peeked in the container with my poor little surface molter to change the food and i got a better look at the discarded exoskeleton shell. It definitely lost it's big claw, the flesh was still in it and getting all gross. it looks like this is the only limb it lost but it's the largest and I imagine the poor bugger is in a bit of shock. it's still not moving but if I gently blow a bit on the shell I see slight movement.
I read that hermit crabs can regenerate limbs...I hope so keeping my fingers crossed.

[hermieluv1]

Don't get your hopes up too high. The dropped claw is usually another sign of impending death, and for them to survive beyond that point is slim. You may be one of the lucky ones. These little guys are so sensitive, and yet at times, so hardy. That is part of their attraction.

Sending my best wishes your way.

[staticfurball]

The thing is the claw didn't just drop, I suspect it was from when I thought it was dead but wasn't and checked it in ISO and found what looked like a falling apart crab....turns out it was only surface molting ( my first experience with that!) but I had picked it up in a mad panic fearing the worst. I posted an emergency thread here and got advice and info. After that it completed its molt in the ISO container i put it in and was too scared to really shift things around to check until now.

[CallaLily]

So he dropped his claw after a surface molt or it became stuck in the exo?

Edit: I was just looking over your first thread. Can you describe what you found when you thought he was surface molting again? I'm wondering because in both threads you mentioned he looked like he was falling apart. A shed exo comes off all in one piece. Exo looks like a hollow version of the front of the crab (no tail). Just wanting to double check.

[staticfurball]

callalilly
ok, the first thing that happened was that I woke one morning to find the crab out of its shell in the corner of the tank near another smaller crab. I never saw this before so I put it in a container by its self with some shells and food after is dipped it in a bit of unchlorinated water because it looked a bit dry.
I left it alone for the day. the next morning I did some looking around and found several internet recommendations to gently place its body in a larger shell so it would not be exposed so I did that.
After work that day I went to check up on it and it looked like it was falling apart, the exoskeleton looked all limp and falling off..i panicked thinking it was dead!
I picked it up to examine it and I fear I might have hurt it doing so in retrospect. but I had never seen anything like this happen to my crabs before and was freaked out.
I put it back in the container and found this forum where I asked for advice. I was told it was a surface molt and to leave it alone for a bit. i added some damp sphagnum moss to the container and changed the food. The next time I checked it had indeed shed its exoskeleton and was deep in the shell so I couldn't see the shape it was in. i left it alone some more and today when i was changing the food I got a better look at the shed exo and found that the BP had not come out of the it, there was still flesh inside. it still hasn't come out and I figure its in pain and in shock.

[CallaLily]

Ok. Thank you for explaining again.

The rest of the exo looks normal? Sounds like that limb just became stuck in his exo so he just dropped it to complete his molt. Continue to keep conditions right and leaving him be. Hopefully he'll start eating his exo soon - it'll be all he needs at this point, as far as food or water goes. I hope he pulls through. After he finishes his exo and is moving around eating normally, he should be ok to go back to the main tank. Be sure to offer a nice variety of foods then because he'll likely refuel for another molt as soon as he can to start working on regrowing his missing limb.

[staticfurball]

Thank you CallaLily, I had to throw out some of the shell because it was rotting with the leftover claw flesh and was smelling. I hope that wasn't a bad thing to do but it was really getting gross. there is still a bit of exo in there with it hope its enough. I did put some food and dehydrated shrimp in there also. I seem to be doing everything wrong just when I think I'm doing the right thing!
I am a bit concerned that my remaining crab will get lonely (do they really?) with one in ISO and one buried/missing!

[CallaLily]

No, that's fine. I would have tossed the rotten bit as well. It's good you left the remaining exo and supplemented with other food. I hadn't thought of it rotting like that.

Your remaining crabby will be ok. This is just a temporary situation. His other buddy will come up and hopefully your ISO'd crab pulls through and can return soon too.

[staticfurball]

Thanks again. I've received a lot of good input here in the past few days. I wish I had joined this group before all this craziness happened, perhaps I could have prevented some of this.